Fayetteville police: Detained Elizabethtown lawman matched description of fraud suspect.. A black Elizabethtown lawman detained by three white Fayetteville police officers matched the description of a prescription fraud suspect during an incident earlier this month, the department said Thursday. Capt. Mike Petti, head of the internal affairs unit for the Fayetteville Police Department, said officers detained Elizabethtown policeman Willie Thompson after speaking with a pharmacist inside a Walgreens on Dec. 2. Thompson, 37, said he was at a RedBox video rental machine outside the store on Grove Street when three officers roughly handcuffed him and immediately placed him in a patrol car. They would not listen to his protests that he was a cop, he said. During a news conference Thursday, Petti said officers asked the employee to come outside and she pointed out Thompson, who said he never entered the store. Thompson was later released. Petti said officers apologized for the mistaken identity. Thompson could not be reached for comment Thursday. In an interview this week at the law office of Allen Rogers in Fayetteville, Thompson said he was handcuffed and harassed by the officers. They came up to me already in the position to handcuff me. They didnt approach me in any type of investigative manner, Thompson said. It was immediate. When I looked up, I was handcuffed and pushed up against the RedBox. Thompson said the suspect was described as a foot shorter than he and wore a dark-colored hoodie sweatshirt. Thompson said he was wearing khaki pants and a sweater. Petti said the description provided to officers who were en route to the Walgreens was for a man wearing khakis and a pullover. The pharmacist contacted police after she said a forged prescription that was stolen from a doctors office in Hope Mills was presented to her. She called police after the man left. Police said the suspect has not been caught. Surveillance video showed Thompson, who was using a RedBox machine outside the business, did not enter the store, police said. Thompson became confrontational when officers approached him outside, Petti said. Thompson told Fayetteville police he was an officer with Elizabethtown, but police said he did not have credentials with him. Thompson said he told officers he had his badge and other identifiers in his car and asked police to look up his identification and patrol number in a law enforcement database. Lt. Todd Joyce, a spokesman for the department, said Thursday that no such database exists. Police said Thompson was kept in a patrol vehicle for about five minutes and was released after officers reviewed the surveillance tape. In a news release Thursday, the department said its officers had a duty to investigate. Regardless of a persons status as a police officer, the release said, (Fayetteville Police Department) officers were obligated to investigate the crime for which they were asked to investigate. Petti said Thompson has not returned calls from the departments internal affairs unit. In the release, the department said the incident demonstrates the need for officer-worn body cameras. Staff writer Nathan Hardin can be reached at hardinn@fayobserver or 486-3509. Now there is another side to this Story .. Here is Fayetteville Police Department side to the story Internal Affairs Unit investigates complaint made by Elizabethtown Police Officer (read full media release). Investigation of Complaint (Fayetteville, NC) – On Wednesday, December 10, 2014, the Fayetteville Police Department received an email from the Fayetteville Observer regarding an allegation that an officer with the Elizabethtown Police Department was wrongfully detained during an investigation on December 2, 2014. On December 2, 2014 at approximately 5:30 pm, officers with the FPD responded to the Walgreens located at 110 Grove Street in reference to a report of an individual attempting to pass a forged prescription. The initial officer went directly inside of the business and made contact with the pharmacist. The pharmacist provided information that the forged prescription had been stolen from a doctor’s office in Hope Mills and she immediately contacted the police once the suspect walked away from the pharmacy counter. The officers obtained a description of the suspect to include that he was a Black Male, clothed in a blue hooded sweatshirt and khaki pants. Officers exited the business and observed a Black Male wearing a dark pullover shirt and khaki pants next to a Redbox automated movie dispenser on the sidewalk of Walgreens. The pharmacist alerted officers that the person at the Redbox was the suspect that had attempted to pass the forged prescription. As officers made contact with the individual at the Redbox, he (Willie Thompson) became agitated and confrontational. Officers advised Mr. Thompson that he was only being detained while they conducted the investigation and he had been positively identified by an employee of Walgreens. Mr. Thompson told officers that he was a Police Officer with the Elizabethtown Police Department, however Mr. Thompson did not have any law enforcement credentials available for inspection. Mr. Thompson further told officers he did not have his credentials as his police chief did not want his officers to carry their credentials out of their jurisdiction. Mr. Thompson further told officers to refer to a “database” of officers to confirm he is a police officer in North Carolina. No such database exists. Mr. Thompson did tell the officers that he had a firearm in his car. Regardless of a person’s status as a police officer, FPD officers were obligated to investigate the crime for which they were asked to investigate. Mr. Thompson was placed in a patrol vehicle for a period of 5 minutes while officers continued the investigation to include reviewing video surveillance inside of Walgreens. During a review of the video, officers determined that Mr. Thompson was not the suspect depicted in the images and immediately released him from detainment. During his interaction with officers, Mr. Thompson told them that he was not angry with them but was planning to sue Walgreen’s and the City of Fayetteville. The FPD’s Internal Affairs Unit immediately began an investigation into the allegations raised by the Fayetteville Observer and have made numerous attempts to contact Mr. Thompson. To this point Mr. Thompson has not returned phone calls to the FPD Internal Affairs Unit. Internal Affairs will continue to aggressively investigate Mr. Thompson’s allegations and hope to speak with him as soon as possible. We encourage anyone who may have video of the encounter which occurred between Mr. Thompson and Fayetteville Police Officers to contact the FPD’s IAU. The Internal Affairs Unit of the FPD has obtained a copy of the Walgreen’s video surveillance in its entirety and will be retained for any future legal proceedings. Chief Harold Medlock takes this allegation very seriously and this incident which further demonstrates the need for officer worn body cameras. Address/Location Fayetteville, NC Police Department 467 Hay St Fayetteville, NC 28301 Contact Emergency: 9-1-1 Non-emergencies: 910-433-1585
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 02:41:37 +0000
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