'Error in judgement:' Mississippi police apologize for detaining 10-year-old

Mississippi police who detained a 10-year-old boy for public urination are apologizing for the incident and calling it an "error in judgement."

The boy’s mother, Latonya Eason, tells WHBQ-TV that she was at an attorney's office in Senatobia, just south of Memphis, when a police officer came in and told her that he caught her son urinating behind her car outside.

Eason said she asked her son Quantavious why he would to that, and he responded by saying that his sister told him there wasn't a bathroom inside. She told him that he knows better and should have asked her if there was a bathroom.

That's when the officer told her: "Since you handled it like a mom, then he can just get back in the car," she told the station, adding that the officer said he was going to give Quantavious a court referral.

Eason thought the matter was resolved but then more police officers pulled up, and things took a turn for the worse.

'Speechless'

When more police arrived, Eason said a lieutenant told the family that the boy had to go to jail for urinating in public.

"I'm just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a 10-year-old kid?" she told the station. “For one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car, it was OK — and to have the other pull up and take him to jail. Like, no."

The whole thing had the boy shaken up, he told the station.

"I get scared and start shaking and thinking I am going to jail," he said.

A photo posted to social media shows the boy sitting in the back of a patrol car.

"I started crying a little bit," he said. "They took me down there and got me out of the truck. I didn't know what was happening."

He said he was held in a jail cell before being turned back over to his mother.

"That could really traumatize my baby," Eason said. "My baby could get to the point where he won't want to have an encounter with the police period."

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'Error in judgement'

Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler issued a statement once word got out about the case and cited the state's Youth Court Act, which he said allows officers to file referrals against children as young as 7 years old if they are “in need of supervision" or 10 years old "if they commit acts that would be illegal for an adult."

In this case, Chandler said an officer saw Quantavious urinating in public, which is illegal for an adult.

"The officer did not observe a parent on the scene during the initial contact," he said, adding that Eason was found shortly after. "The officers then transported the 10-year-old to the police station to complete the paperwork where the child was released to the mother. The child was not handcuffed during this incident."

He continued: “It was an error in judgement for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at that time as a reasonable alternative.”

Chandler said that "mistakes like this" are a reminder that continuous training is needed for officers.

Neither Eason nor the Senatobia Police Department immediately responded to USA TODAY for requests for further comment Wednesday.