[Aurora Police]
Daily Mail: The incident comes amid nationwide protests and mounting criticism of the Aurora Police Department which has been blamed for the death of 23-year-old Black man Elijah McClain last August.
Photo: YouTube
Another Black family being terrorized by dumb racist policing.
A Black family traveling in an SUV with children aged six to 17, were detained and handcuffed at gunpoint after police mistakenly thought their vehicle was stolen.
Bystander footage has emerged on social media showing the moment Aurora Police officers in Colorado arrested a driver and a group of young girls in the parking lot of a thrift store on Sunday morning.
The shocking video clip shows the family lying on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs in broad daylight as officers escort them into police vehicles.
The four children, who are six, 12, 14, and 17 years old, can be heard screaming and crying throughout the arrest.
The incident was a case of mistaken identity after cops believed the car had been stolen because it matched the license plate number and description they were given.
They later determined they had stopped the wrong car and were actually looking for a motorcycle with the same license plate number from Montana.
The incident comes amid nationwide protests and mounting criticism of the Aurora Police Department which has been blamed for the death of 23-year-old Black man Elijah McClain last August.
The driver of the blue SUV has been identified as Brittney Gilliam, who had been traveling with her nieces, younger sister and daughter.
She told local station 9News that she had taken her family to get their nails done but later realized the salon was closed.
The family then returned to their car only to be surrounded by officers who had their guns drawn.
“There’s no excuse why you [cops] didn’t handle it a different type of way,” Gilliam told the news station. “You could have even told them ‘step off to the side let me ask your mom or your auntie a few questions so we can get this cleared up.’ There was different ways to handle it.”
Police said cops may have accidentally targeted the car because it had been reported stolen in February in a separate incident. Gilliam said the vehicle was stolen in February but was found the following day.
Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson later released a statement on Twitter, apologizing for the mix-up.
Read the rest of this Daily Mail story here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8591821/Aurora-police-arrest-black-family-gunpoint-mistakenly-thinking-car-stolen.html
