I have to defend the officers on this one. Sure, they could have handled the hostage differently, but that’s easy to say well after this volatile incident is over. Despite the fact that the police dispatcher was given a description of the suspect that differed markedly from that of the hostage, I can understand why, during the confusion that is usually attendant in such incidents, officers would act the way they did. After all, it is well known that bank robbers have tried to escape the scene by pretending to be one of the hostages.
I can understand why this gentleman was so upset. But would the officers have treated him better had he and the suspect both been white? Given the same circumstances, I seriously doubt that.
CARY BANK HOSTAGE CLAIMS POLICE MISTREATMENT
By Gerald Owens
WRAL.com
February 26, 2011
Cary, N.C. — A Cary man who was held hostage in a bank earlier in February says that police treated him roughly when he was released.
Police say that Devon Mitchell, 19, claimed to have a gun and held as many as seven people hostage at a Wachovia bank on Feb. 10. He let five hostages, including Rev. Lee Everett, leave over the course of three hours.
As he escaped, Everett said, police mistook him for the hostage-taker. He said officers immediately jumped him, kneed him in the back and neck and forced him to ground.
"I remember them screaming, 'Shut up, shut up, shut up,' and I'm trying to say, 'You all going to kill me,'" Everett said. “They just grabbed my arm, they bent my arm back, and they just went to town on my little tail."
Everett said he yelled that he was a hostage, but police didn't realize he wasn't the suspect until they had dragged him across the parking lot and over a fence.
The standoff at the bank on Green Level Church Road ended when Mitchell left the bank holding what appeared to be a gun to the head of a woman and was shot by law enforcement.
Everett, who is black, filed a complaint against police this week, claiming that he was treated differently than the six other white hostages. Police knew the hostage-taker was a black man from a description given to a 911 dispatcher during a call from inside the bank.
The caller described the hostage-taker's purple shirt and red pants. Everett said he was wearing a Harris-Teeter smock and had come from the grocery store, where he works as a produce manager.
An officer apologized after the incident and said they didn't know that he was a hostage, Everette said.
"I said, 'You still don't have to do me like that. You're supposed to protect me, and you (are) the guys to do me in,'" he said. "It was so wrong to treat me like they did."
Everett was taken to the hospital after the incident. He said he suffered ripped muscles in his arm and severe bruising and still has nightmares.
No comments:
Post a Comment