Former Saturday Night Live star Jay Pharoah has shared frightening surveillance footage of an LAPD officer kneeling on his neck, after he was detained in a case of mistaken identity.
The comedian said that he was stopped by police while out for a run, and initially didn’t think anything of it, as he assumed the officers were after someone else.
“As I’m walking across the street, Corbin and Ventura, I see an officer to the left of me,” he said. “I’m not thinking anything of it, because I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
He continued:
“I see him coming with guns blazing, I see him say ‘get on the ground, put your hands up like you’re an airplane.’ As he’s looking at me, I’m thinking that he’s making a mistake. So I’m looking past where he’s looking. I’m looking at him, and I’m looking past me cause I’m like, ‘whoever they’re about to get, this is going to be terrible.’”
The surveillance footage then shows several officers approaching him, with their guns drawn, as he lies on the ground, before one of them puts a knee on his neck as he’s placed in cuffs.
The 32-year-old said that he was stopped because he “fit the description of a black man in this area with grey sweatpants on and a grey shirt.”
“I had never been in cuffs before up until that point,” he said. “I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
The video ends with a reenactment of Jay Pharoah under the officer’s knee, as he encourages viewers to educated themselves. You can see it below, via his Instagram:
