R&B music superstar Wyclef Jean says he was wrongfully handcuffed by officers in LA on Tuesday after they mistakenly believed he was a wanted armed robbery suspect.
LAPD another case of mistaken identity. Black man with red bandana robbed a gas station as I was in the studio working but im in handcuffs? pic.twitter.com/vjRfJUkooA
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) March 21, 2017
Wyclef says he was in the recording studio working at the time of the alleged robbery, but apparently he matched the description of the suspect. After he was cuffed, he posted a video to Instagram in which he can be heard asking the officers if they called his studio and made it clear that he planned to sue the department and officers involved.
Wyclef described the initial encounter in another tweet and then expressed his displeasure with the cops’ handling of the situation.
I was asked by the police to Put my hands up. Then I was told do not move. I was instantly hand cuffed before being asked to identify myself
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) March 21, 2017
Nor was I told why I was being cuffed. In the process I said my name and told them they have wrong person.
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) March 21, 2017
I am sure no father wants his sons or daughters to see him in Handcuffs especially if he is innocent.
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) March 21, 2017
As some one who has law enforcers in my family, I was appalled by this behavior of the LAPD.
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) March 21, 2017
Wyclef was only in cuffs for about six minutes before additional units radioed that they had caught the real perp. The celebrity gossip website obtained video of the arrest of the real suspect, just blocks away from where Wyclef was briefly detained.
While Wyclef refers to the officers as members of the “LAPD,” they were actually members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
LawNewz briefly spoke with a spokesman for the L.A. Sheriff’s office and he said Wyclef was only detained, not arrested, because he matched the description of an armed robbery suspect — down to the Haitian flag bandana both were wearing. The description had the suspect in a similar red bandana with Haitian flag and he reportedly was riding in the passenger seat of a car that look similar to the vehicle Wyclef was riding in at the time he was stopped.
The spokesman said anytime they have a armed robbery suspect it is going to involve a traffic stop, usually with guns drawn, and all occupants of the vehicle will be detained in cuffs for officer safety until identities can be sorted out. The spokesman said he is unsure if Wyclef was placed in the back of the squad car as part of his six minute detention.
A field sergeant then showed up on scene and explained what was happening to Wyclef and he was eventually released once the actual suspect was captured just a few blocks away.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Office is putting out a full press release on the incident very soon and LawNewz will update this story when we receive the news release.
[image via screengrab]
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