Ving Rhames was held at gunpoint by police officers in his home after a neighbor reported that a “large black man” had broken in, the actor said on Friday.
“I open the door and there is a red dot pointed at my face from a 9mm [handgun],” the star of Mission: Impossible, Pulp Fiction and other films said on the Clay Cane show on Sirius XM. “They say, ‘Put up your hands’.”
Rhames said the confrontation happened earlier this year and was defused quickly when the police chief recognized him.
“He said it was a mistake and apologized,” the actor said, adding that he was still shaken. “My problem is, and I said this to them, what if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?”
Rhames said police told him a neighbor had called 911 and said a large black man was breaking into the house.
“Myself, the sergeant and one other officer, we went over to that house, which was across the street from my place, and the person denied it,” Rhames said.
He continued: “Here I am in my own home, alone in some basketball shorts. Just because someone called and said a large black man is breaking in, when I opened up the wooden door a 9mm is pointed at me.”
Santa Monica police did not immediately respond to a request for information about the incident.
Rhames was a responding to a question about his experiences with racism.
“I’m sure you hear about all the reports of black men being attacked by police,” Cane said. “You are a big star, but how does racism show itself in your life?”
Rhames’ story was reminiscent of recent high-profile incidents in which black Americans have had the police called for innocuous activities like leaving a short-term rental property, working out at a gym, or sitting in a Starbucks.
It was also similar to an incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2009, in which Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was detained outside his own home.
The resulting national conversation about race and policing culminated in Barack Obama hosting Gates and the arresting officer at the White House, for what was dubbed the “beer summit”.
