Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Pharoah was stopped by police officers and forced to lay on the ground with a knee in his neck, he revealed in an Instagram video.
Pharoah said he was jogging with noise-canceling headphones on when multiple Los Angeles Police Department officers approached him. He recounted the incident — which took place about one week before the killing of Ahmaud Arbery came to light — in a video posted to his social media on Friday. The video included footage of the incident taken from nearby security cameras.
When the officers first advanced toward Pharoah, he didn’t think they were talking to him when they yelled at him to get on the floor.
“I’m not thinking anything of it because I’m a law-abiding citizen,” he said. “As he’s looking at me I’m thinking that he’s making a mistake so I’m looking past where he’s looking. I’m looking at him and looking past me because I’m like ‘whoever they’re about to get, it’s just about to be terrible’ but no. He was coming to get me.”
In the video, four officers can be seen approaching him with their guns drawn as he drops to the ground. Pharoah was handcuffed while one officer put his knee in the actor’s neck. While he said he wasn’t in that position for as long as George Floyd was, he still understands how Floyd felt.
When the Virginia native asked the officers why they stopped him, they said he fit the description of a suspect who was wearing gray sweatpants and a gray shirt. He then told the police officers to google “Jay Pharoah” and they would see that they “made a big mistake.”
The officers came back to him a minute later and said they got a call they had the wrong person and the actual suspect was already apprehended. He told them to “get these f**king cuffs off of me.”
The stand-up comedian said he had never been handcuffed before and, as he grew up in the “burbs,” he was sheltered from the reality of police violence.
“I didn’t experience first-hand racism in America until this year,” he said.
While he’s happy he’s still here to tell the story, the 32-year-old said he “could’ve easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd.”
The Ride Along actor, born Jared Antonio Farrow, appeared on The Talk to discuss his encounter with police, saying he was just trying to exercise.
“It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn’t who I am. And the point here is being Black in America, is just that, being Black in America. Other people can’t level with the same fears I have,” he said according to Deadline. “Leaving the house, we should not have to fear going to the grocery store, going to get some gas, running down the street. It’s called human civility. That’s what it is. It’s about being a human.”
As his Instagram video comes to a close, he urges everyone to educate themselves.
"I literally could’ve been George Floyd," he said. "We as a country can’t breathe anymore, and we are tired. We are sick and we are tired of it. I can’t breathe!"
According to NBC News, the LAPD has seen the video and is investigating the incident. A police spokesperson said the department has given Pharoah a document to file a misconduct complaint.
