Texas police have apologised after pulling a gun on a Black family travelling to a basketball tournament and handcuffing their sixth-grade child after making a mistake during a traffic stop.
Demetria Heard, from Little Rock, Arkansas, was driving with her husband, son and nephew in the car when they were pulled over in a “high-risk” traffic stop in Frisco that saw at least one officer aim a weapon at the car and warn the family that they would be shot if they reached back into the car.
Police said when they ran the plate, the licence had accidentally been entered as Arizona, not Arkansas, and had been flagged as a potential stolen car - later promoting the Frisco police chief to issue an apology to the terrified family.
“They actually bring him and cuff him and put him in the car - they are walking him to put him in the police car and I am crying, I’ve been hyperventilating,” Ms Heard said of seeing her sixth grader led away by police.
“My husband explains to me that my nephew is in there literally screaming for hs life and telling him ‘Uncle, we are about to die’.”
Footage from police bodycam shows the officers suddenly becoming aware of what they told the family was “a human error” in entering the plate.
One of the officers tells the family: “I’m not justifiying anything, I’m just saying it wasn’t a computer that ran this, it was our human error that did this so, so please forgive us.”
The family were not physically injured, but Ms Heard said they had suffered “mental and emotional trauma”. Police said they would learn from what had happened, while an internal review is underway that is expected to include changes to training policies.
