POLK COUNTY, Ga. – Days after a 12-year-old girl broadcast her suicide live on a social media site; Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd said he can’t stop people from sharing the video online.
In the video, Katelyn Nicole Davis claimed she had been physically and sexually abused by a family member, then hung herself in the front yard of her Cedartown home on December 30.
Chief Dodd was initially unaware video of the girl’s death was being shared on social media.
We were actually contacted by a police officer from California who saw it the night of the event,” Chief Dodd told FOX 5’s Deidra Dukes.
The police department’s been flooded with Facebook messages, emails, and phone calls from as far away as Great Britain from people who are outraged the video is being shared online and demanding the police have it taken down.
Chief Dodd has personally contacted several of the individuals operating the websites that posted the disturbing footage. He’s urged them to pull the video, without success. The chief said he wishes he could force them to take it down legally, but his hands are tied.
“We want it down as much as anyone for the family and it may be harmful to other kids. We contacted some of the sites. They asked if they had to take it down and by law they don’t. But it’s just the common decent thing to do in my opinion,” said Chief Dodd.
