Denver Police Officer Caught On Camera Drawing Weapon On 3 Black Children

A Denver Police Department officer was caught on camera drawing a weapon on three black children after the manager of a store claimed there was a black man with a gun in a car.

David Lane, an attorney representing the stepfather of the children, said the incident took place on May 7. His client, Naphtali Israel, an African-American, was shopping at a Safeway store with his three stepdaughters. The girls returned to their car after picking up some items and their stepfather continued picking up groceries.

“It was too difficult for me to shop with the two-year-old. They throw tantrums, want snacks. I decided my 14-year-old should sit in the vehicle and watch the rest of the children while I continue to shop,” Israel told 9News.

Deputies arrived at the parking lot after the store manager reported that there was a “young black male in a hoodie sitting in a grey Cadillac with a gun.”

A video of the incident released Wednesday (June 3) showed an officer drawing a gun at the car. The doors of the vehicle were open at the time.

“The video shows he had [the children] at gunpoint for around 15 seconds. The halo cam video has no audio, but the 14-year-old says that she was ordered to ‘take her [expletive] hands off the steering wheel! She had her hands on her 2-year-old sister, not the wheel. When she released her, the 2-year-old crawled out of the car and the sergeant then yelled ‘get that [expletive] kid back into the car!’ She pulled her sister back into the car. The sergeant had his gun pointed directly at the kids for about 15 seconds and did not reholster it for around 2 minutes,” the attorney said.

When Israel stepped outside, he was confronted by the officers. One of the officers put him in handcuffs and pat him down as he continued to express confusion. The officers didn’t find any weapons with Israel or in the car.

DPD division chief of patrol, Ron Thomas, said, "We apologized for the fact that there was obviously some confusion in that he wasn’t the individual who had the weapon. The video I watched, [there was] significant de-escalation being used, efforts to explain what they were doing what they were doing... Explaining the call they received and they were responding to that call."

Israel’s fiancee, Clarissa Ford, said the girls were traumatized by the incident.

“My daughters, they are not doing very well. All of them are going to therapy. They’re suffering from PTSD. My daughter [doesn’t] sleep very well at night… they have nightmares now,” Ford told 9News.