Bodycam Video Shows Police Mistakenly Detaining Black Teen

DURHAM, N.C.– — By Daniel Ford

Police in Durham, North Carolina, have released footage of a black teenager being mistakenly detained as a suspect who was carrying a gun.

While the incident took place in August, police shared the footage on social media on Nov. 3

Jaylin Harris, 15, was playing tag with friends at an apartment complex when officers ran at him with their firearms raised. Police, who were called to the scene after receiving reports of a young man in a white sleeveless T-shirt brandishing a gun, believed the boy was the suspect because he was wearing such a garment. Body camera video shows when police entered the scene, the youth first ran before being caught and subdued.

A woman points at the boy and repeatedly says, “That’s my baby,” while asking officers to remove the handcuffs.

Officers then explain to the mother and others at the scene that they are responding to reports of a man in a white top carrying a gun. The police take the handcuffs of the teen and ask him several questions before advising him not to run from them again.

The incident sparked a protest in the city shortly after it happened, and the boy’s mother said at the time that the police’s attitude was too “nonchalant.” 

“It didn’t matter to them, they didn’t see their kid on the floor,” she said. “Just another black young boy. They don’t understand the trauma that they inflicted on these kids just in that second.”

An internal review of the officers’ actions during the incident was announced by Durham Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis on the department’s Facebook page shortly after the event, but it could not be immediately determined if that process is complete.

Altercations like this have been the subject of intense scrutiny across the U.S. and elsewhere after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while being arrested in late May in Minneapolis. 

(Edited by Matthew Hall and Carlin Becker)