A Covington man says he was mistakenly stopped at gunpoint Friday by an Atlanta Police sergeant.
The policeman apparently mistook the sedan the man was driving for a police SUV parked nearby, Rashid McCall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I felt like I was being carjacked,” McCall said. “Thoughts of my children flashed in my head.”
McCall said he was driving away from the main branch of the U.S. Post Office around 7:30 a.m. Friday when he saw a man running up to him out of the corner of his eye.
“Suddenly, there was a man to my left with a gun pointed at me saying, ‘Get out of my car … that’s my car,’” McCall said.
McCall said he quickly stopped the car and raised his hands “and waited for the sound of a gunshot and the shock of a bullet entering my body.”
The man opened the door and looked inside the car briefly, then holstered his weapon and apologized, McCall said.
“‘Oh … this is not my car,’” McCall said, recounting the officer’s words as the ordeal ended.
Sgt. James Ebb’s white Ford Explorer, embossed with Atlanta Police decals, was parked some 15 feet away from where McCall got into his white Toyota Camry before the incident.
And at no time did Ebb announce that he was a policeman, McCall said.
McCall called 9-1-1 and asked for a police supervisor to come to the scene and then went to talk to U.S. Postal Service police patrolling the area.
After waiting for a lieutenant to arrive and assess the situation, Ebb apologized and got into his vehicle and left, McCall said.
“His actions were not the actions of a sound person,” McCall said. “I felt a real concern that this officer was allowed to get in his [SUV] with his gun and just drive away. This officer is out in the public and could hurt someone or himself.”
Police spokesman Sgt. Curtis Davenport said the department’s office of professional standards is investigating the incident.
“”The employee has been placed on administrative duty in a non-law-enforcement capacity,” Davenport said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”
Ironically, McCall works for the law firm that represented Tramaine Miller, who was erroneously shot in the face allegedly by off-duty policeman Reginald Fisher in 2009.
Fisher was charged with aggravated assault, but acquitted earlier this year.
McCall’s supervisor, Mawuli Mel Davis, was Miller’s attorney and questioned police methods in dealing with this situation.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Davis said. “Mr. McCall asked that a warrant be filed against James Ebb. Why wasn’t the officer arrested? Why wasn’t his gun taken away from him at the scene?”
In the statement McCall filled out for the postal policemen, he said he sat in his car shaking as Ebb backed away. Later, McCall reflected on the close call.
“I escorted Tramaine to court every day [that Fisher was on trial criminal aggravated assault],” McCall said. “I relived his pain with him. All I could think about in those few seconds was that happening to me.”
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