All it took was for a passerby to call the police reporting that he had seen a “black male holding a firearm on the sofa” through half-drawn blinds for officers from the Metropolitan Police to invade the home of Alice Mina Agyepong and arrest her 12-year-old boy, who was just playing with his toy gun.
According to the boy’s mother, “I’d fallen asleep and I woke up to my son opening the door and officers were pointing guns at him and he was immediately arrested.”
She added: “There must’ve been about 25 police officers, 10 armed officers with weapons with red laser lights. All I could see was police cars and lights.
“I told them almost straight away that there were no weapons in the house, only a toy gun belonging to my son but we were shouted at to put our hands above our heads and walk one by one out to the street. We were all terrified.”
“When I opened the door, they said, ‘get on the floor and put your hands above your head’ and then they handcuffed me and put me in the police car. The handcuffs really hurt and I asked them to loosen them but they wouldn’t and I had marks around my wrists when I took them off,” Kai Agyepong himself told The Camden New Journal.
The police searched the family home with dogs, a development Ms. Agyepong found excessive and humiliating, especially when her two daughters had to look on as their home was ransacked.
Finding no pellet in the gun, Kai was released from custody with no charges filed. Commander Kyle Gordon, senior firearms officer at The Met, meanwhile sees nothing wrong with the conduct of his officers.
“I have personally watched body-worn video of the incident, and whilst I can understand concerns in terms of how the incident has been reported in some quarters, I am content from what I have seen that the officers were professional throughout and took time to explain to the residents what was happening and why,” he told BBC.
Ms. Agyepong, the boy’s mother disagrees noting, “there’s something wrong with society if you can be at home not breaking any laws but in a nanosecond police can burst in and put you and your loved ones lives at risk,” adding “this is not America, it’s London.”
Seeking justice for the ordeal her family has suffered, Ms. Agyepong has filed a formal complaint even as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) reviews the case.
