MINNEAPOLIS _ A Black man said thoughts of George Floyd went through his head as he sat in the back of a police squad car after officers pulled him over _ at least one of them with gun drawn _ in a Minneapolis suburb until they realized they had the wrong guy.
"I could have been dead today," Darrius Strong, 30, of Burnsville, said in an account he posted on Facebook soon after what began as a traffic stop early Friday afternoon along Old Shakopee Road. "Just remember ... anything can happen to us, man, especially Black bodies ... Black people, Black men. ... Racial profiling is a thing."
A statement on behalf of the three police departments involved in the stop _ Richfield, Edina and Bloomington _ was posted early Saturday evening on Facebook by the Richfield Police Department. It included an apology to Strong, described him as compliant with the officers and explained that he was the victim of an "unfortunate case of mistaken identity" because someone using his name led to an arrest warrant being issued.
Richfield police said they would be releasing squad dashboard camera video Monday in an effort "to promote transparency" about the speeding stop led by one of their officers as part of a state traffic enforcement campaign.
Bloomington and Edina police said they would be saying more about the encounter later Monday.
Strong, who according to a Change.org petition is a fiance, father of a 1-year-old and a contemporary dancer performer and instructor who lives in nearby Burnsville, said in his video that all of the officers approached his car with "their guns out. ... I see four cops approaching, (I) stuck my hands out the damn car." However, the statement from Richfield police said, "No other officers had their handguns drawn."
Addressing why its officer had "momentarily" had her gun drawn, "pointed at the ground (and) "never pointed at Mr. Strong," the Richfield police statement explained that action often occurs because of "the high-risk nature of arresting individuals with felony-level warrants."
Once cuffed and in the back of the squad car, "I'm shaking. ... I don't know what they gonna do to me when this door closes. ... George Floyd came to my head, I ain't gonna lie. He came to my head thinking about ... when they put him in the back and they was doing all kinds of things to him."
Strong added that three of the officers involved in the stop were white men, prompting him to think, "'OK, here we go.'"
He said he questioned the four officers about why _ as he contended _ they all had their guns drawn, and was told he was under arrest and would have his vehicle towed because he was wanted for check forgery.
"Once again, George Floyd popped into my head," Strong recounted.
Strong told the officers he doesn't write checks, gave his full name and offered to tell them his social security number and " 'whatever you need.' "
Floyd, while unarmed and handcuffed, died while in police detention on May 25 at a south Minneapolis intersection. Police were called to the intersection of E. 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue on a store clerk's suspicion that Floyd was trying to pass counterfeit currency.
In the meantime, as the officers look deeper into the arrest warrant, "I'm praying in the back to Jehovah," Strong said in his video. "Please, please, please, let me make it back home to my daughter, my fiancee, my friends."
Once confirmed that Strong was not a wanted felon, the tow truck was canceled about 12 minutes after the stop began, according to emergency dispatch audio, and police let him out of the squad car and took off the handcuffs. "A Black man traveling in these suburban communities ... it could have ended in a whole different route," Strong said.
The police statement noted that "this was no doubt a stressful and emotional experience for Mr. Strong. While they were doing their jobs based on what they knew at the time of the traffic stop, officers regret the stress Mr. Strong felt."
The statement added that all three departments will "make sure Mr. Strong's record is cleared and will continue to have important conversations in our communities regarding police-citizen encounters and how they need to reflect the best of all involved."
