Video of teen's arrest leads to call for internal affairs investigation in St. Paul

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter is calling for an internal affairs investigation into last week's arrest of a 13-year-old girl that was captured on video and posted to social media.

"This video is deeply disturbing to watch," Carter said in a statement Wednesday night, shortly after the Pioneer Press published an article about it.

Carter said he's asked Police Chief Todd Axtell to launch an inquiry into "the circumstances surrounding this arrest as soon as possible."

Authorities say the teen had violated a no-trespassing order, fled police and, when an officer caught up with her, she began resisting arrest.

The widely viewed video has since been removed from Facebook.

The altercation began around 6:30 p.m. last Thursday, when an officer spotted the teen in the parking lot of the Midway BP station at 1300 block of W. University Ave.

The girl had been banned from the area until at least August 2020 and the officer knew she wasn't supposed to be there, said police spokesman Steve Linders. He called the girl "a chronic problem" at that location.

When the officer approached the teen, authorities say she ran.

While responding to a call of four juveniles trying to open vehicle doors in a retail parking lot on University Avenue, he again spotted the girl and arrested her inside a nearby UPS store.

The police report says the girl resisted, kicking and spitting on the officer.

Linders said it can be hard to watch when someone is resisting arrest.

"But at the end of the day, the officers did their job and no one was physically injured," he said.

The girl was taken to the juvenile detention center on suspicion of felony assault, obstructing legal process, fleeing a police officer and trespassing.