Texas police issue apology to Black family wrongfully held at gunpoint

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Associated Press
2 Aug 2023 18:13

The family was on its way to a youth basketball tournament when they got stopped by a police convoy on a highway.

Police lights (AP)

A police department in Texas issued an apology to a Black family after a typo caused officers to stop the car on wrongful suspicions it may have been stolen and hold the family at gunpoint, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

"We made a mistake," Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement. "Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them."

The family was on its way to a youth basketball tournament when they got stopped by a police convoy on a highway.

The driver of the car -- the wife -- was first ordered to get out of the car and walk backward toward officers.

While her husband, their son, and a nephew were also in the car, the police ordered one of the children to step out and lift his shirt.

They then ordered the driver's husband and the other child to stay inside the car and raise their hands through the windows.

"I’ve never been in trouble a day of my life," the driver says in a video footage released by the police. "This is scaring the hell out of me."

The police admitted that the traffic stop was caused by a typo as an officer misread the car's license plate. The police officer responsible for misreading the typo said she confused the Arkansas license plate with an Arizona one.

The driver was informed by officers that she was pulled over because the car's license plate was "associated essentially with no vehicle."

"Normally, when we see things like this, it makes us believe the vehicle was stolen," the officer tells the crying woman on the body-camera video.