Police in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, pulled their guns out and handcuffed an 18-year-old black man on September 2, on suspicion of either robbing or attempting to rob a car, only to find that he was the grandson of the white woman who he was riding with.Grandmother Paulette Barr was driving with a friend, who was also white, with her black grandson in the back seat, when police told them to pull over. She was about to drop her grandson off at work, according to The Washington Post.Dashcam footage shot from the vehicle of Wauwatosa Police Officer Pat Kaine shows Kaine ordering the teen, later identified by media as Akil Carter, to exit the car, raise his arms, and walk backwards towards the police vehicle. Carter is then handcuffed and placed in the back of the police car.One of the women in the car is heard telling officers that the teen was her grandson. Kaine tells the woman police received a report of two black males attempting a robbery and said the person who made the report said one of the suspects was in the blue Lexus that Barr and her grandson were traveling in. Barr, responding to the officer, suggests assumptions were made about Carter. “Well, I’m telling you he’s my grandson,” the woman says. “I’m sure he saw two old white ladies in a car with a black kid and made some assumptions,” she said.The Wauwatosa Police Department issued a statement on September 6 saying officers had performed the traffic stop and detained the teenager after receiving a report from a black man and a black woman that a robbery had just occurred and that a suspect was sitting in the back seat of a blue Lexus.“The 18-year-old male was detained based on reasonable suspicion for approximately 6 minutes while officers investigated. The 18-year-old and other occupants were then allowed to leave. The original citizen who reported this to police did not stay in the area, as requested by officers, and has yet to be located to get a formal statement,” police said. “The officers acted professionally during the entire interaction.”The family’s attorney Joy Bertrand told KTLA 5 that the video showed officers violated Carter’s right “right to be free from an unreasonable stop, the right to be free from an unreasonable seizure.” Bertrand also raised questions over the police account, saying it was “strange” that the officer’s interaction with the people who made the report did not feature in the dashcam footage, CBS reported. Credit: Wauwatosa Police Department via Storyful
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