A day of viewing homes for sale turned into a traumatic experience for a Black man and his teenage son, after police surrounded the house with guns and placed them in handcuffs.
The incident unfolded on August 1 at a home on Sharon Avenue in Wyoming, Michigan, just outside of Grand Rapids.
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Real estate agent Eric Brown was showing the home to 46-year-old Roy Thorne and his 15-year-old son, Samuel. All three are Black. As the men were upstairs, the teenager came running up to the second floor and said police were surrounding the home.
According to the Wyoming Department of Public Safety, officers arrived at the house after receiving a call from a neighbor who reported a possible home invasion in progress. A week earlier, a man who claimed to be interested in purchasing the home had been arrested after admitting to police that he entered the house on more than one occasion without a real estate agent present. The neighbor, who had been asked by the homeowner to keep an eye out, incorrectly assumed that the same individual had returned, along with two others. Five officers were dispatched and a perimeter was set up around the house.
Thorne said he looked out the window and saw a police officer with a gun drawn, hiding behind a tree, the New York Times reported. When Thorne yelled out, the officer reportedly pointed a gun at him and instructed everyone to come out with their hands up.
"I knew once they surrounded the home they were preparing for a standoff," Thorne told CNN. "And so my instincts told me we need to get out of here, we need to get to where they can see that we're not a threat."
Thorne said he was especially worried about his son, who said he felt "confusion, shock and fear."
"It went from, 'Dad, there’s cops outside,' to 'come outside with your hands up,'" Samuel told CNN. "That was kind of like, just from zero to 100."
All three exited the home and were placed in handcuffs. Thorne and his son were put in the back seats of separate squad cars. Brown explained that he was a relator and showed officers his real estate license. When officers asked how he got into the house, he said he had access to the keys. After realizing that this was not a break-in, police apologized for the "misunderstanding" and let Brown and the Thornes go.
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The Wyoming Department of Public Safety issued a statement about the incident, denying any allegations of racism or racial profiling.
"After a thorough internal review of the actions of each of our public safety officers who responded to this incident, we have concluded race played no role in our officers' treatment of the individuals who were briefly detained, and our officers responded appropriately," the statement said. "While it is unfortunate that innocent individuals were placed in handcuffs, our officers responded reasonably and according to department policy based on the information available to them at the time."
Thorne told CNN the incident is an example of why police reform is needed.
"If you see a crime, report a crime. But if you see people -- Black people, any minority -- don't report people doing normal things," he said. "You do that, you don't realize that you can change their life or have their life taken, just you making a phone call. In this instance, it could have been three."
Police offered to meet with Brown and the Thornes to discuss the incident. Arrangements are being made to do so.
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