Family mistaken as armed robbery suspects
A day out for lunch and a little shopping didn’t go the way one Georgia family had expected. Just after lunch, the family of five were pulled over, surrounded by deputies and handcuffed.
“They treated us like common criminals,” Angela Senior said. “All of a sudden, like 20 cops came up behind him and they all got out of the car with guns drawn. They were like ‘roll down the window, throw your car keys out onto the street,’ and we are like, this is not a normal stop.”
The family of five included Angela Senior, her husband Kippy and their three children, Jeremy, 17, Amarie, 10, and Kyann, 7.
Deputies with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office released the incident report about the family getting targeted by law enforcement.
According to the report, the mix-up came following a woman who was the victim of an armed robbery on GA 400.
The report stated, “the Forsyth County 911 Center advised the victim had been forced off the roadway after a big black Dodge Ram pickup truck struck her Mini Cooper. The victim stated two young black males, one of which was wearing a red in color hoodie and the other wearing a gray hoodie, held her up with guns.”
The report goes on to say that one of the deputies “observed a large black in color Dodge Ram 2500.” That was the car the Senior family was traveling in.
The report stated that the windows were tinted but the deputy could tell that the “occupants in the front that matched the physical description, but with dark window tint further description was not available.”
Kippy Senior said the deputies should have known sooner during the traffic stop that they weren’t the suspects they were looking for.
When all of us had our hands out the window, we didn’t fit the description no more,” Kippy Senior said. “They didn’t need to have all of us get out the truck like that, and I felt like they were profiling us, and all type of other stuff, trying to humiliate us in public. Making my wife get down on her knees, handcuffing my son and pointing a gun at my kids.”
The family has filed a formal complaint against the department that will be investigated by Internal Affairs.
Kippy Senior and his wife said they felt that if they made any wrong moves, things would not have ended the same. Through tears, their 10-year-old daughter, Amarie Senior, talked about the traffic stop.
“It was really scary watching my mom get out of the car, pointing guns at my mom and stuff,” Amarie Senior said. “It was just really scary for me to watch it [because] I didn’t want anyone to get hurt or anything.”
The family said if there is one take away from what happened, it is always to listen to the commands of law enforcement, don’t fight back and respect them at all times.
“It was almost like, if you made one wrong move it would be it,” Angela Senior said. “We knew we weren’t robbers so we stayed calm.”
The family is asking that the officers be reprimanded for their actions, make a formal apology to them for handcuffing them and holding them at gunpoint, and that they help get the children counseling after they said their children were terrorized and caused them undue trauma.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said they could not comment on pending internal investigations. They provided CBS46 News with a copy of the incident report immediately.
