Police officers in California pulled over a pregnant woman and her eight-year-old son at gunpoint while on the way to the boy’s football practice in a case of mistaken identity, according to the woman.
What Shanice Stewart initially thought would be a mundane traffic stop on 17 October in Sacramento soon became a terrifying experience, she told ABC News on Monday. Stewart and her son Brandon are African American.
Stewart, who is nine months pregnant, said she knew she was not just pulled over for a traffic ticket when she saw the police officers had drawn their guns and instructed her to throw her keys out of the window and open the car door with her left hand.
She said she followed instructions but felt confusion and fear and immediately broke down in tears. Fearing for his mother’s safety, Brandon also exited the car and in a panic, explained to the officers that his mother was simply driving him to football practice and that she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Fearing for her son’s safety, Stewart shouted, “My baby, that’s my baby!” when Brandon approached the officers.
“I was scared of him getting shot,” Stewart said to ABC. “You don’t know what to expect, especially when it’s multiple officers with their guns drawn towards the car. You just you don’t know.”
The officers first believed Brandon was an older juvenile suspect with two pending felony warrants, one of which included gun possession. But Stewart said she thought the officers realized their mistake after coming face to face with her young son, who was dressed in his football uniform.
“You confused my baby with a suspect?” Stewart asked the officers at the time. “He’s just little.”
Brandon was leaving his family’s house with his mother when helicopter surveillance came to mistakenly suspect him. Police told ABC that Brandon matched the suspect’s description “because of his hair style and clothing”.
Stewart said Brandon was no more than 4ft tall, adding that she was confused as to how the officers believed he was an adult suspect.
Although police let Stewart and Brandon go soon after realizing their mistake, she said she worried about the consequences of the traumatic situation for her son.
“I’m scared for him – on how he’s going to be taking this in the future, and how it’s going to affect him in the future,” Stewart said after the ordeal. “Because that just showed him he’s not always safe – that they will think he’s a suspect [even] at eight years old. That’s just so young for a kid that’s so innocent to feel that way.”
Police said to ABC in a statement: “We must acknowledge that a case of mistaken identity occurred. Our officers provided explanation and an apology to the mother and her son. Our department has been in contact with the mother since the incident. We recognize the impact that police interactions can have on our community members.”
Stewart said she was considering legal action against Sacramento police despite the apology.
“It was definitely heartbreaking,” Stewart said to ABC. “It’s something that is a life changer – for us to not have done anything and for it to had went that far.”
