A pregnant woman and her third-grade son were stopped at gunpoint by several police officers in Sacramento, Calif., when law enforcement misidentified her young son for a teenage suspect with two felony warrants.
The mother, Shanice Stewart, was taking her 8-year-old son, Brandon, to football practice when they were pulled over. Apparently Stewart’s young son, who stands at 3 feet 10 inches and only weighs 56 pounds, was wrongly identified by helicopter surveillance, ABC News reported.
Sacramento police have been in contact with the mother since the incident, and the news outlet reported that Stewart is considering legal action against the department. She said her son, who is only in elementary school, was traumatized by the incident. According to the outlet, Brandon does not ride in the front seat anymore and tells his mother to drive safely when police are near them on the road.
Stewart said, “As far as me, at any given moment, every time an officer gets behind me, I’m at fear for my life. I’m scared and he’s scared.”
Police realized their error after instructing Stewart to get out of the vehicle with their guns drawn.
She recalled, according to ABC News, “I noticed that they had guns drawn
and they had instructions for me to then toss my keys out of the window.”Stewart said the officers proceeded to tell her to “open the door with my left hand, proceed to get out and put my hands in the air and then walk towards them. I immediately broke down because I didn’t know or understand what was going on.”
Her son, Brandon, was not aware that the officers mistook him for the suspect. According to the news outlet, he got out of the vehicle and pleaded for his mother to come back while he explained to officers that his mother was taking him to football practice.RELATED CONTENT: Leonard Cure’s Mother Speaks Out After He Was Fatally Shot During Traffic Stop In Georgia