Bedfordshire police have been criticised by the family of a 81 year old man after he suffered bruising during an arrest when officers mistakenly turned up to his home at 5am yesterday morning.
The police believed it was the location of a suspect who had committed a crime as the officer explains in the video obtained by scarcity-studios.com to a relative of the man who had suffered a heart attack recently.
Over half a dozen officers turned up when the elderly gentleman came out of his home “with a stick” the officer said in the video.
She said she requested it be put down repeatedly but he failed to comply- the family claim this was due to his confusion at the time.
He shouts as he is being taken into the van “i was just watching telly” and denies assaulting any officers.
The family reassure him he will be met at the police station and he was subsequently released without charge.
He has suffered bruising to his arms and hands as shown in a picture from the family.
We await a statement on the incident from the police and will update when appropriate.
This comes after the Met Police have paid a man £10,000 after he was handcuffed and searched in his own gated garden, lawyers have said. Navern De La Kruz, 31, was opening the gate of his own home when police “handcuffed, stopped and searched” him Bhatt Murphy Solicitors stated.
According to a statement released by his legal team, officers “wrongly” detained him after claiming he matched the description of a person suspected of knife crime. Mr De la Kruz was said to have been opening his gate on June 27, 2020 for a friend when police stopped him under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which cannot be used when someone is on private property.
After being informed that Mr De La Kruz lived at the address, officers at the scene did “not apologise to him for their mistake”, his legal team said. The Met agreed to pay £10,000 in damages, but has not made any admission of wrongdoing or offered an apology to Mr De La Cruz, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors said.
Speaking about the incident, Mr De La Kruz said: “I felt so belittled to be stopped, searched and handcuffed right outside my house for something I had nothing to do with. More than two years have passed since the incident and I still haven’t received an apology from the police but sadly that is what I expected.
“I sought to hold the police to account because I want others, and particularly the younger generation of Black queens and kings, to know that the misuse of stop and search and handcuffs is not okay and that it can be challenged. To know that the misuse of stop and search and handcuffs is not okay and that it can be challenged.
“I sincerely hope lessons that lessons will be learnt from my case to ensure that officers act within their powers and understand the impact incidents like this can have on confidence in policing”.
Mr De La Kruz was represented by Sohini Mehta of Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, who said: “This case is yet another example of the heavy-handed use of stop and search and handcuffing on Black people without adequate justification. My client has still not received an apology from the Met Police.”
