Oct 31, 2023
Pregnant Mom & 8-Year-Old Held At Gunpoint By Cops Who Mistook Child For Teen Drug Dealer
Pregnant Mom & 8-Year-Old Held At Gunpoint By Cops Who Mistook Child For Teen Drug Dealer
- 10 minutes
A police officer pulls out a gun on
an eight-year old child thinking
the eight-year old child is a grown
man that the cop is looking for.
Let me give you the video first and
we'll get into it.
Here it is.
[00:00:21]
>> Please don't leave.
Please wait.
>> Speaker 1: Pulls out
a weapon on an eight-year old.
Put up the picture.
[00:00:39]
You see that small child
wearing a football jersey?
Well, the cop thought this was a man,
a suspect.
[00:00:57]
Shanice Stewart, pregnant California
mother says her eight-year
old son is traumatized after
Sacramento police officers held them at
gunpoint after mistaking
the eight-year old child for
[00:01:15]
a teenage suspect wanted on two felonies.
Keep that picture up.
Does that look like a teenager to you?
Of course not.
And the cop is supposed to be a detective,
he's supposed to be an investigator.
[00:01:31]
Supposedly, this investigator
thought this was a teenager.
Stewart is now demanding the department
issue her family an apology for
their show of force toward her child.
[00:01:46]
Let me give you details of what happened.
Officers from the Sacramento Police
Department pulled over Ms Stewart and
her son Brandon while they were on
their way to a football practice.
This was October 17th at about 5 PM.
[00:02:02]
As soon as she was stopped,
officers pulled out their firearms.
Quote, I looked in the rearview mirror,
and
that's when I noticed the police officers
had their guns out, Stewart said to KCRA.
[00:02:17]
They had them aimed towards the car.
So I listened to their instructions to
toss my keys out of the window, open my
door with my left hand, and get out slowly
with my hands in the air, she added.
I just followed instructions.
Now, remember, during this time, this is
the time that's likely the most dangerous.
[00:02:39]
Because if one cop says,
I thought they were reaching for
a weapon, and they start shooting and
kill both, well, guess what?
According to the Supreme Court,
they get to go home.
It's a subjective standard for
police officers as long
[00:02:58]
as they say they felt their lives
were in jeopardy, they can be wrong.
It is not objective for them,
it is subjective for them.
There's more.
While they were detained, now,
remember the insanity here.
[00:03:17]
They still proceeded with detaining,
clearly a baby, eight years of age.
While they were detained, the officers
informed her son, informed her excuse me,
[00:03:32]
that her son, they suspected of being
involved in various criminal activities.
Stewart was taken aback as more law
enforcement agents arriving in at
least three additional cars and
then they brought in a helicopter for
the eight-year old.
[00:03:50]
They brought in a helicopter, joined
the officers that initially stopped her.
Put up the picture again.
Okay, why do we need a helicopter?
They're detained.
You've detained a child
going to football practice.
[00:04:08]
You have backup, you have guns drawn.
All of a sudden, a helicopter comes
to the scene and not one of you,
let's just say, geniuses, realize this
is a freaking eight-year old baby.
[00:04:23]
Dumb asses, every single one of you.
All right, put up his other pictures.
Yeah, they thought he was grown damn near,
okay?
[00:04:42]
Really, my eight-year old baby fits
the description of the suspect you're
looking for?
She told KCRA she was thinking,
it just didn't make sense to me, she said.
She posted on Facebook, the police
thought her son was a drug dealer.
[00:04:58]
Yes, going to football practice
in an eight-year old body.
And they also believed that this drug
dealing eight-year old going to football
practice child engaged in home invasions
in addition to selling narcotics.
[00:05:18]
What?
This is all a true story,
ladies and gentlemen.
This is what the police believed
about this eight-year old child.
According to Stewart,
who was also nine months pregnant,
during the stop, her son started to shout.
[00:05:34]
Why was he shouting?
He was worried about his mother.
He wasn't worried about himself,
he was worried about his mom and
asked the officers not
to take his mother away.
In the post, she said she feared for
her son's life because
the police insisted he fit
the description of the suspect.
[00:05:54]
The son also was afraid for
the mother's life.
He can be heard in the video screaming
to his mother, please don't leave.
Please wait.
So the police eventually
admitted officers made a mistake,
releasing this official statement
that read in part, here it is.
[00:06:13]
From a distance,
officers observed a juvenile
who they believed to be a wanted suspect.
All windows on the sides and
back of the vehicle were heavily tinted.
[00:06:28]
Based on the information regarding firearm
history, a high-risk stop was initiated.
They realized the juvenile in the vehicle
was not the wanted suspect and
at that point,
the high risk stop was ended.
[00:06:46]
We must acknowledge that in this instance,
a mistake was made.
Our officers provided an explanation
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
[00:07:04]
community members.
I hope there's a lawyer involved
somewhere here, definitely.
Because the emotional distress
created in this situation and
[00:07:20]
then their explanation, well,
it was a high-risk arrest or
a high-risk whatever.
It was still high risk
when they detained them?
Clearly, one of your guys can see
this is an eight-year old kid.
[00:07:35]
Clearly, they said this is a child,
this person is eight years old but
nobody removed the handcuffs or
stopped the insanity at that point.
So let's put up the chief.
Buck stops with Kathy Lester.
[00:07:52]
Per People, the department said,
investigation into the incident
is underway, all right?
Don't hold your breath.
Stewart told KCRA she can't shake
the feeling of being worried and
[00:08:10]
scared, saying her son could be
experiencing even more trauma.
What kid wants to live in fear
of a police officer possibly
stopping him in the future and
doing something to him?
[00:08:27]
Is this how they deal with young children,
young men, young minorities?
Per CNN, she's seeking a therapist for
her son who has been unable
to talk about the incident.
She also wants the department to pay for
the counseling and
intends to file a complaint against them.
[00:08:45]
My encouragement, ma'am,
please find an attorney.
Please find an attorney quickly, okay?
The emotional distress,
the fact that he can't talk about it,
it doesn't mean he's dealing with it.
[00:09:01]
It means your child is
not dealing with it and
it is residing in his subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is a great
protector to our conscious thought.
So the subconscious mind has
stored it to protect him but
unfortunately, we are governed
by our subconscious thoughts.
[00:09:21]
So this thing that seemingly changed
his thinking about police and
his thinking about the world cuz remember,
he's traumatized because these people damn
[00:09:38]
near took his mother away by force,
by weapon, detained his own mom.
All right, Sharon, hell of a thing.
The excuse from the police doesn't fly.
>> Speaker 2: No, it doesn't and
it's [COUGH] sad and painful to hear that
[00:09:57]
mother begging and talking about
what her child will have to face.
Tamir Rice's mother still has nightmares.
I'm sure, what was it?
1.2 seconds, a baby but
to the police, in too many instances,
certain children are viewed
as coming out of the womb
[00:10:15]
fully formed adults who face
adult unfair consequences.
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