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Boy, 7, arrested for riding dirt bike on sidewalk

BALTIMORE - Police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him and hauled him down to the station house on a charge of riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.

Then, according to his mother, Gerard Mungo Jr. was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated before being released to his parents.

"They scared me," Gerard told The Baltimore Examiner before breaking down in tears.

Mayor Sheila Dixon apologized Friday for the arrest, and Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm said it would be investigated internally.

The arrest came after an officer saw Gerard riding his dirt bike on the sidewalk in east Baltimore on Tuesday, police spokesman Matt Jablow said. Hamm, citing the internal probe, declined to discuss how the rest of the incident unfolded.

Kikisa Dinkins said her son was sitting on the bike with the motor off on the sidewalk when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off.

"I told them to let go of my baby," Dinkins said. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?"

Dinkins said she called for a police supervisor to intervene, but the confrontation continued to escalate after the supervisor arrived.

"They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did is wrong, son?'" Dinkins said. "He was so scared he ran upstairs."

Police arrested Gerard and confiscated the bike.

Dinkins said officers fingerprinted him and took his mug shot. Hamm could not confirm that and said those actions would not have been normal procedure in a non-felony case.

Posted in: News on March 17, 2007 @ 12:00 AM

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