Boy’s terror
They said he matched the description of the over 6-foottall man, dark skin with long locks ... which my son is none of.
A NEWARK mom whose 10-year-old son was chased and cornered by armed cops in a terrifying case of mistaken identity says an apology isn’t enough: She wants reform.
Nearly two weeks after Legend Preston’s run-in with a tactical team chasing an armed robbery suspect, his mother, Patisha Solomon remains horrified over what could have happened.
“When I think about my child staring at the end of a gun,” Solomon, 30, told the Daily News. “One wrong move, and my child wouldn’t be here right now. My son could have tripped. He could have reached for a toy. They could have done anything to my son, and it could have been his fault.”
Legend was simply retrieving a ball from the street near a garage on Stuyvesant Ave. where he was playing basketball with some other boys when he saw armed cops bearing down on him like his face was on a wanted poster, his mother said.
Legend, according to his family, did what any right-minded, city-raised kid would do under the circumstances — he ran.
“I was scared for my life,” Legend told The News. “I was thinking that they were going to shoot me.”
He was soon surrounded by neighbors and friends who shielded him from the blundering cops. “This is a child!” they screamed. “He matches the description,” the cops countered, according to Legend’s mother, who shared her version of events from the Aug. 11 incident in a viral Facebook post that featured video of the boy shaking and crying.
Cops got their man — 20-yearold Casey Robinson — but not before walking off without offering an apology to Legend or his mom.
Robinson, who wears dreadlocks and sports facial hair, was captured on the next block. He was charged with armed robbery and illegal possession of a weapon.
“I was yelling at the police,” Solomon said. “Then one of the officers very smugly said, `You want to make a report, go to 32 Green St.’ and kept walking,” she said, a reference to the city’s municipal building. “I wanted to go off. I really did.”
Instead, she turned her attention to her traumatized son, and recorded his reaction, which she posted on social media for her outraged friends and followers. “I knew I had to get some type
documentation,” Solomon of said.
Solomon said she and her son have followed news about the Black Lives Matter movement, and insisted that she never wanted to be an activist.
“I didn’t ask for any of this,” she said. “My prime concern is not an apology. My concern is reform of this system. I want to see accountability and responsibility. I want reform. I want change. I want justice for my son and these children. It’s not just about my son. It’s about all the children in neighborhoods like this.”
A police spokesman told WABC-TV, which first reported the story, that responding officers did have their guns drawn but said they never aimed the weapons at Legend.
Legend, meanwhile, says he has had nightmares about his ordeal.
“I dreamt about it twice,” the boy said. “I dreamt that when I was running they just shot me on my leg. I wake up scared. When I see a police officer now, I think that they are going to chase me.”
The Essex County prosecutor’s office is investigating.