Viral TikTok videos show Orlando police officers pulling guns on Black bike riders mistaken for robbery suspects
A viral TikTok video posted on April 20 showing two bike-riding Black men are accosted at gunpoint by police. The clip was titled “What you think happen,” was shared by @riskie_e showing the person who posted the video and his friend riding their bicycles past a police car in Orlando around 11:47 p.m. The officers suddenly pulled out their guns and yelling at them to get on the ground.
One of the men which was wearing a GoPro camera, are frightened and asked what the pair did wrong. The pair pleaded their innocence while lying on their stomachs before police tell them to crawl in the direction of the police car. Several videos shows the aftermath of the incident were posted under the handle @riskie_e, including one where he is asking the police why they are being targeted, and the officer responds saying, “You are being detained as a part of an investigation; you match the description of two suspects.”
In another video the man wearing the camera told police multiple times he wasn’t giving officers permission to search him.
“I mean I would like to know what’s going on,” he said. “I don’t consent to any searches or any type of seizures, cuz I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t commit no crime. I just left 7-Eleven… I don’t know what description you guys are talking about but I feel violated right now. You guys got my buddy right there crawling. I’m in cuffs. I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
At some point he invokes his 5th amendment right, however, eventually he provides the officer his identification in the form of a passport, but doesn’t budge when asked for his address. “I’m gonna invoke my fifth amendment right to remain silent, you guys got my ID. I’m not saying anything else because I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Once police confirmed the pair weren’t suspects they were let go. Although they were fingerprinted and held for a few hours because “they fit the description of two suspects that just committed a robbery” according to the man filming the video.
Orlando Police Department spokesperson Autumn Jones told the Orlando Sentinel that 10 minutes before the incident took place, the officers were looking out for suspects involving in the robbery of a tourist who alleged Black men of “darker complexions” riding bicycles attacked him and stole his wallet, camera and Apple Watch, Jones said.
Jones said the officers pulled out their guns because the robbery suspects told the victim they were armed. “They were stopped in the immediate area of the armed robbery and were detained to determine if they were the suspects responsible for the violent crime,” she told the Orlando Sentinel.
Orlando police released body camera footage of a police officer apologizing to the men after they were released.
“I apologize that it wasn’t you, but you guys matched the description and that’s why I did what I did,” said the officer.