A metro Atlanta mom said she was misidentified and wrongfully detained with her two children, 11Alive reports. Police allegedly thought Deondra Hawkins, her 14-year-old daughter and her adult son living with autism were involved in an armed robbery that occurred nearby.
According to the officers, police were called to a T-Mobile in Cobb County on March 18. After the robbery took place, a man with a firearm ran across the street into a white Hyundai Sonata. According to 11Alive, the police saw what they thought was the Hyundai Sonata at a RaceTrac gas station. They conducted a traffic stop and matched a witness’ description of the car.
Hawkins was then asked to step out of the vehicle before she was handcuffed.
“It was pure confusion,” Hawkins said of the incident, Atlanta Black Star reports. “The police pulled up with their guns out and demanded we get out of the car, and I had no idea what I could have possibly have done.”
Her children were in the gas station’s convenience store when Hawkins was asked to leave the car. When they exited the store, they were also detained. In a chilling video of the incident, you can hear Hawkins’ teenager daughter screaming as an officer pulls her away from her family.
“My daughter ran towards me,” Hawkins recalled, according to 11Alive. “I was trying to get them to remain where they were.”
Police also forced Hawkins’ son to get on the ground.
“They were separated from me,” she said. “And it’s very traumatizing to even think about it.”
The video, shot by a bystander, captures Hawkins calmly following officers’ commands as police point firearms at her. They eventually put Hawkins and her children in squad cars.
“They didn’t say anything, they handcuffed us and didn’t tell us anything until the end,” Hawkins told Atlanta Black Star.
“After we were unhandcuffed, they told us they were looking for a [male] suspect, tall, slim, Black and had a car that was my make and model,” Hawkins added.
However, Hawkins said no one in her family matched the description of the suspect.
Hawkins has hired representation that intends to pursue an investigation into the incident. One of her attorneys, Kayla Bumpus, told Atlanta Black Star that she wants the police to provide some answers.
“Unfortunately, they took a take action, ask questions later approach and they did that with a child and that’s completely unacceptable,” Bumpus said, Atlanta Black Star reports. “This was an open gas station full of people, and of all the cars to pick and of all the people there, you pick this family, completely innocent.”
Bumpus tells Atlanta Black Star that no lawsuits have been filed yet, and she’s working on getting all video footage of the incident.
