A viral video posted to TikTok shows officers mistakenly detaining a young Black man they believed to be a suspect in a string of car thefts in Michigan. The Lansing Police Department has addressed the video and calls it an “unfortunate understanding.”
The video captures the young man in a parking lot near a large dumpster, shortly after a police officer has handcuffed him. Soon after, a man who appears to be his father comes out and defends the young man being detained.
“They traumatized my son,” the man says in the video.
The father and the person filming can both be heard saying that the young person was simply taking out the trash.
In a Facebook statement posted on Friday, Lansing police said the young man, wearing neon shorts and a white shirt, matched the description of a car theft suspect that officers were actively pursuing. The officer who initially detained the young man then was able to “clarify” he was not the suspect, the statement said.
“Our hope is we can put this unfortunate case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’ behind us and continue to represent the community that we serve,” Lansing police said in a statement.
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