Seahawks’ Bennett says he feared death by Las Vegas police

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Seattle Seahawks player Michael Bennett accused Las Vegas police on Wednesday of racially motivated excessive force, saying he was threatened at gunpoint and handcuffed following a report of gunshots at an after-hours club at a casino-hotel.

Bennett said on a Twitter message titled “Dear World,” that police “singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Police later attributed a report of gunfire to the sharp sound of velvet rope stands being knocked to a tile floor. It happened a few hours after the Aug. 26 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.

Bennett described the incident as “traumatic” during a brief appearance Wednesday at the Seahawks’ facility.

“It’s a traumatic experience for me, my family and it sucks that the country that we live in now sometimes you get profiled for the colour of your skin,” Bennett said. “It’s a tough situation for me. Do I think every police officer is bad? No, I don’t believe that. Do I believe there are some people out there that judge people by the colour of their skin? I do believe that.”

Bennett declined to go into specifics of the incident.

“I’m just trying to focus on the game, focus on the task at hand and let everything take care of itself,” Bennett said. “But like I said this is a tragic situation for me, I hate to be up here at this moment.

“There is a lot of people who experienced what I experienced at that point, at that moment and they’re not here to tell their story.”

Bennett, a 6-foot-4 defensive end who has been a leader of the national anthem protests started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick , said he was among several hundred people running away.

In his Twitter message, Bennett said he was handcuffed face-down on the ground after an officer held a gun to his head saying he would blow his head off if he moved.

“All I could think of was ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin colour is somehow a threat,”’ he wrote. He said he thought of his wife and children.

Bennett said he was taken to the back of a police car “until they apparently realized I was not a thug, common criminal or ordinary black man but Michael Bennett a famous professional football player.” He was released without charges.

Las Vegas police Officer Jacinto Rivera said police were checking for casino and police body camera video and written reports. He said the department couldn’t immediately verify Bennett’s account or identify the officers involved.

A video posted by celebrity news site TMZ shows a view from a balcony as a police officer kneels on the back of a man who looks like Bennett. Protests are heard, including, “I wasn’t doing nothing,” and, “I was here with my friends. They told us to get out and everybody ran.”

Bennett’s attorney, John Burris in Oakland, Calif., confirmed that the words were Bennett’s.