Photo: Getty Images
A pregnant mother and her eight-year-old son were pulled over and held at gunpoint by Sacramento police officers who wrongly believed the child was a felony suspect, per KCRA.
Shanice Stewart, who is nine months pregnant, said she was driving her son to football practice last week when they were pulled over on the highway.
"I looked in the rearview mirror and that's when I noticed the police officers had their guns out," Stewart said. "They had them aimed towards the car, so I listened to their instructions to toss my keys out the window, open my door with my left hand, and get out slowly with my hands in the air. I just followed instructions."
Stewart told her son to stay in the car. However, as she approached the officers, Stewart noticed her son had gotten out of the vehicle and was pleading with officers to not take her away.
The Sacramento Police Department admitted that officers had mistaken her son for another juvenile wanted for two felony warrants. Stewart said police told her that her son fit the description of the suspect, who they had been watching for two years.
"From a distance, officers observed a juvenile who they believed to be wanted suspect, enter a vehicle with tinted windows," Sacramento Police said in a statement. "All windows on the sides and back of the vehicle were heavily tinted. Based on the information regarding firearm history, a high-risk stop was initiated."
"As officers were conducting the stop and the windows were rolled down, they realized the juvenile in the vehicle was not the wanted suspect, and at that point the high-risk stop was ended," the statement continued. "We must acknowledge that in this instance, a mistake was made. Our officers provided 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 community members.”
Stewart is still seeking a formal apology from the department over the incident, which has left her son traumatized.
"What kid wants to live in fear of a police officer possibly stopping him in the future and doing something to him?" she said. "Is this how they deal with young children, young men, young, you know, minorities."
The Sacramento Police Department said they are reviewing body camera footage of the incident.
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