photo: pingnews

On Dec. 8, Stamford police were searching an arriving Metro-North Train Car for two suspects whom were considered ‘armed and dangerous’, one of whom was described as a black man.

Unfortunately, passenger Martin Speight, 28, of Stamford, was also a black male passenger on the train that day, and was held at gunpoint by a Stamford police officer with – of all things – an assault rifle…

According to Speight’s friend accompanying him on the train, he immediately started crying and trembling, unable to follow the officer’s instructions and subsequently fainted. After realizing they had the wrong man, Speight was released and the unidentified officer helped him and apologized for the case of mistaken identity.

Speight has retained a lawyer to draft a complaint against the Stamford police and contacted the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

My question is why would a cop want to search a train with an assault rifle anyway? Wouldn’t it be harder to maneuver and target a suspect on a train car vs. a pistol? Just wondering.

The Stamford Police have not released any details about why the raid occurred, but said they did detain and release two suspects that day without charging them.

via StamfordAdvocate.com