ACTOR TELLS OF ‘PROFILING’
A black actor claims he was racially profiled by Los Angeles police after he was taken into custody at gunpoint for a crime he didn’t commit.
Darris Love (above) was arrested June 6 by officers who were searching for burglary suspects in the Glendale, Calif., area. The suspects had led police on a car chase that ended with them driving into a parking garage and ditching their vehicle.
Love, 38, says he had been shopping with his girlfriend Ayesha Dumas at the Glendale Galleria that day, and was in the garage to get his parking ticket validated at around 12:50 p.m when police stopped him.
Video from the scene shows him being frisked by police as he lies on the ground, before he’s escorted away by officers with his hands behind his back.
Love, who says he was handcuffed, says he spent five hours in custody before authorities determined he was the wrong guy.
The actor said he’s the victim of racial profiling. His girlfriend, meanwhile, claims her car was damaged when police searched it, and that an officer warned her she could be arrested as an accessory.
Police had been looking for two or three burglary suspects who had allegedly knocked on people’s doors in search of homes where no one was present. They were caught on camera allegedly stealing from a home in Tarzana, according to the report.
The LAPD said a statement Tuesday that Love was detained after police followed a burglary suspect driving a black BMW to the Galleria and set up a perimeter as he attempted to get away.
“During that search, Darris Love was detained by Glendale police at the mall and turned over to the LAPD after he was mistakenly identified by the L.A. County sheriff’s department as the possible suspect,” the LAPD said in a statement. “He was in LAPD’s custody for less than three hours and was released after it was determined he was not the suspect.”
Love did not express “any desire” to submit a complaint after he was released, police said.
Love has appeared in several TV series during his acting career, including the Nickelodeon show “The Secret World of Alex Mack,” which aired in the 1990s, and “E.R.”