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Responding to criticism after his officers handcuffed and arrested school children as young as 6 for failing to stop a fight, a police chief in Tennessee said on Sunday he was “so sorry this incident happened,” Mediaite reports.



According to the Associated Press, the 10 elementary school students handcuffed and arrested by police in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were charged for being bystanders to—not participants in—a fight that occurred several week ago. From The Tennessean:

The two children who allegedly committed the assault were not charged with the crime because of their young age, [Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl] Durr said. Arrest records show the children alleged to have witnessed the fight were charged with “criminal responsibility for conduct of another,” which according to Tennessee criminal offense code includes incidents when a “person fails to make a reasonable effort to prevent” an offense. The offense was assault.

“I am so saddened, and I’m so sorry this incident happened, because I truly think it could have been avoided,” Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl Durr told The Tennessean. “Errors were made, and now we are going to correct them moving forward and fix them so they are not repeated.”

According to the paper, there are not currently any plans to dismiss the charges against the children, but Durr has promised to review the department’s handcuffing policy for children under 12.