Update (August 12, 2021):  Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is taking on the case of a Black realtor who was handcuffed alongside a client and his son during a home showing last week.

As Blavity previously reported, real estate agent Eric Brown was showing a home in Wyoming, Michigan, to Roy Thorne and his 15-year-old son Sammie when police arrived and ordered them to come outside. 

“What should have been a great day for this father and son, and another day at work for Eric, turned into a day of terror that will stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Crump said, The Hill reported.

“In America, you can’t walk while Black, drive while Black, sleep while Black, or even work while Black,” he continued. “A Black man shouldn’t fear for his life every time he goes to work. I won’t stop until these men and this child receive the justice they deserve.” 

According to TMZ, Crump is considering a lawsuit against the City of Wyoming Police Department for what he says was the “false imprisonment and unlawful detention” of Brown and Thorne.

The civil rights attorney was drawn to the case after Wyoming police released body camera footage of the Aug. 1 incident, which began after a woman called 911, believing the three Black individuals viewing the home were potential burglars.

“Last week Saturday the police came out…there was a young Black man that was squatting in a home that's for sale, and I know they came and took him away and towed his car away. Well, he's back there again,” the caller told the operator. 

The men and teenager were subsequently placed in handcuffs after police kept their guns drawn while they exited the property. 

Since the ordeal, both Brown and Thorne say they've been suffering from mental trauma and feel that they were racially profiled. Additionally, Sammie is now suffering from insomnia and anxiety from the incident.  

The Wyoming Police Department has stated that “officers acted appropriately” in their response to the incident and asserts that race was not a factor in the situation.

“We have concluded race played no role in our officers’ treatment of the individuals who were briefly detained,” the department said in a statement.

Original (August 4, 2021): Eric Brown, a Black realtor in Michigan, was handcuffed along with his client during a showing on Sunday when several armed police officers responded to the house after a reported break-in. Brown said he was showing the house to his client Roy Thorne in Wyoming, Michigan when they were racially profiled and briefly detained before police acknowledged the gaffe. 

“Roy looked outside and noticed there were officers there and were pointing guns toward the property,” Brown said, according to WGN-TV. 

Thorne, who also had his 15-year-old son with him during the showing, said police ordered the group to exit the home in a single file line with their hands in the air.

“They keep their guns drawn on us until all of us were in cuffs,” Thorne said. “So, that was a little traumatizing I guess because, under the current climate of things, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

While he was detained, Brown showed his credentials as the real estate agent. Police said the handcuffs were then immediately removed. 

“That officer came back and apologized again, but at the same time, the damage is done,” Thorne said. “My son was a little disturbed. He hasn’t seen anything like that. He’s not going to forget this.”

Capt. Timothy Pols said a previous burglary had occurred at this same address on July 24. On Sunday, the caller who reported Brown and his client suspected that the burglar might have returned. 

“The caller indicated that the previously arrested suspect had returned and again entered the house,” Pols said. 

The captain added that officers followed protocol when they put the group in handcuffs. While Pols insists that race didn't play a factor, Brown and Thorne said officers would have responded differently if they had been white.

“I feel pretty anxious, or nervous or maybe even a little bit scared about what do I do to protect myself if I’m going to show a home and the authorities just get called on a whim like that,” the realtor said. “Am I just automatically the criminal? Because that’s pretty much how we were treated in that situation.”

In another similar incident in 2018, a Black real estate agent named Jerry Isham and his client Anthony Edwards were handcuffed and illegally searched during a showing in Cincinnati. When the men entered the house using a key from a lockbox, nine police officers appeared outside and demanded them to step outside with their hands up, Yahoo reported. 

“From the get-go, one officer had her weapon drawn,” Isham’s attorney, Brian Shrive, said.

The two Black men won a lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati in 2019 for accusing them of breaking into a home.