Actor Ving Rhames was held at gunpoint in his own home after a neighbour called the police to report “a large black man” breaking in.
Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible, Don King: Only in America) has come out and told the public that he was held at gunpoint in his own home. The incident happened after a neighbour of his called the police to report “a large black man” breaking and entering.
The Santa Monica Police Department released a Facebook statement on the incident on July 28. “On July 29, 2016 at about 1:52 p.m., Santa Monica Public Safety Dispatch received several calls from residents of a possible residential burglary in the 800 block of 23rd Street in Santa Monica. The reporting parties indicated a black male was seen entering a residence and did not live there,” the statement read. “Officers from the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) responded to the area with the information available to them. Within minutes, officers arrived at the residence. As officers were assessing the residence, they encountered the resident at the front door. Officers recognized the resident and the situation was quickly de-escalated with no use of force occurring. The resident was identified as Ving Rhames.”
Rhames went on the Clay Cane Show to discuss the racism that he’s dealt with in his life and recount the incident that took place. He explained how he was in his Santa Monica residence at approximately 2:15 p.m., clad in basketball shorts, and with his two puppies when he heard a knock at the door. “So, I get up, and I’m just in my basketball shorts, I open the door and there’s a red dot pointed at my face from a 9mm,” he said. “And they say, ‘Put up your hands.’ Now, I just walked up and opened the door. And then they said, ‘Open the front gate.’”
He further explained that three policemen and a police dog held him outside before one of the policeman recognized him. They apologized and ended the altercation. He was informed that a woman called the police and said a large black man was breaking in but when he asked her about the phone call, she denied it.
“I said to them, ‘What if It was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?’ Trayvon had a bag of Skittles.” Cane and Rhames then mentioned Sean Bell, a black man living in New York at the time when he was shot 50 times in 2006 by undercover policemen the day before his wedding.
The Santa Monica Police Department added in their statement plans to introduce a new program called “Meet Your Neighbors” so incidents like this can be avoided in the future.