An Ohio restaurant owner was wrongfully arrested in a case of mistaken identity, WTOL reports.
The wrongful arrest of Darnell McCloud, owner of Fremont Coney Island, unfolded in Fremont, Ohio on July 11. Officers entered McCloud's restaurant and told him they had a warrant for his arrest.
However, it was later discovered that the suspect the police were looking for was a man named Darnell Smith. McCloud was detained because they share the same first name.
“You have a warrant, Darnell,” one officer told McCloud, per body camera footage of the incident.
Police failed to ask McCloud for identification before taking him into custody. Officers also declined to show him the warrant.
“What am I getting locked up for? What did y’all show me?” McCloud asked the officers.
“It’s for the county. The county’s going to serve it to you at the jail,” an officer replied.
After arriving at the county jail, McCloud corrected an employee who asked about his identity.
“My name ain’t Mr. Smith,” McCloud told the employee. “My name is Mr. McCloud. My name is Darnell McCloud."
Officers then ran McCloud through the police system and discovered their mistake nearly 30 minutes after he had arrived at the jail.
“I was pleading my innocence from the beginning. All the way from the beginning, actually,” McCloud told WTOL. “To be taken all the way down to the county jail for no reason, it was very humiliating.”
Police Chief Derek Wensinger issued an apology following the incident.
“I’m of course, disappointed. We didn’t live up to the standards that our community expect us too,” Police Chief Derek Wensinger said ina staement. “We can’t do this alone. We need community support with community support, we are exponentially better at doing our job as police officers. We have been talking amongst ourselves on ways we can do better. It’s not just with interactions like this. There’s other things that we can do better.”
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