Landry Thompson,13, Taken Into Custody After Falling Asleep in Guardian's Car: Police Deny Racial Profiling
Landry Thompson, 13, and her legal guardians were all taken into custody in Houston after falling asleep in their vehicle. Many believe that race played a factor in the arrest of Thompson's legal guardians, who are black, while Thompson is white.
Thompson and her two legal guardians, Emmanuel Hurd and Josiah Kelly, stopped off at a gas station to figure out how to get back to a hotel after a series of dance classes in Houston.
"We were on the GPS trying to figure out where the hotel was, and we sat there and we dozed off," Thompson told KHOU News.
The trio awoke, surrounded by police, and what happened next left them stunned.
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"They just pulled us out of the car and put our hands behind our backs like we were criminals," Hurd said. "The officer asked me, 'who's the girl?' and I said, 'she's my student.' I told him I had a notarized letter from her parents stating that we have full guardianship over her while we're here."
He said that the police didn't seem to care about or listen to their explanation but instead took them into custody and took Thompson to Child Protective Services, where they phoned her mother to explain what had happened and that she would have to fly to Houston to pick up her daughter.
"They still put handcuffs on me and it really scared me," Thompson said. "And they put me in the back of a cop car and I was terrified."
"I was horrified," Destiny Thompson. "She was with the people I wanted her to be with. Emmanuel had a letter signed by us, had every contact number they could've possibly needed; he had her insurance card; he had her original birth certificate, not a copy. She was with people I trusted, and now she was taken away from those people and in a shelter with people I didn't know. I would love an apology."
After several hours of negotiation and explanation, Thompson was finally released into the custody of Hurd and the other dancer, who had followed the girl to the CPS facility and waited for her to be released.
Hurd and the Thompson family believe that this is a case of racial profiling, given the different races. The HPD has denied all charges of that, though, and said it was simply a case of "age discrepancy" that led officers to act.
"Given the age discrepancies… and the child had no relatives in the area, officers in an abundance of caution, did their utmost to ensure her safety," the Houston Police Department said in a statement.
"This was literally one of the worst experiences of my life," Hurd posted on Facebook. "To watch my student go through that right in front of me and there was nothing I could do about it."
