A Black youth leader in California says he was wrongfully detained and escorted out of his home while naked after deputies mistook him for a burglary suspect.
Derrick Cooper, 54, told NBC that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department raided his apartment at 4 a.m. on April 18. That night, a burglary call was made near the L.A. City Wildcats facility, a youth sports center run by Cooper for over 27 years, whose apartment resides in the same building.
Cooper said that the encounter left him feeling “less than human” and “humiliated."
“I was not valued as a human being,” he said. “To just come in and blatantly take me out of my safe place and put me in a place that I’m helpless and afraid for my life —it’s one of the worst things imaginable.”
When he awoke to the three deputies yelling at him in his bedroom, Cooper shared that he "just went into survival mode," telling them "I’m unarmed, I live alone, please do not shoot me."
The officers ordered him to get out of bed, but Cooper, who was naked from the waist down, said he asked to put on underwear or pants. The officers refused.
“As much as I wanted to reach for something to cover up, I just knew if I did that, it was not going to be good for me," he explained. 'So as embarrassed as I was, I chose being embarrassed to live another day."
Cooper said he was then handcuffed, and was not told what he was being arrested for, despite asking several times “What am I being arrested for?” The deputies held him in his own business, inside the sports center.
“This is not right. He walked me out of my building onto Compton Boulevard with no shoes, no socks on," Cooper continued, noting his lower body was also exposed.
Cooper said he sat in a patrol car for twenty minutes until dispatch radio told the officers: “You guys are at the wrong building. Let him go.” The officers then apologized, and he ran back into his apartment.
“I’m exposed. I’m already embarrassed. I went in, and I just sat there for the longest time thinking, 'I can’t believe this is happening,'” Cooper said.
Cooper’s lawyer, Jaaye Person-Lynn, said that security footage from the night reveals no signs of attempted burglary, let alone a suspect roaming the grounds. Person-Lynn said that he filed a claim Monday, not only seeking restitutions for Cooper, but demanding the implementation of proper training for officials at the sheriff's office.
“I’m not going to rest until justice is served with this. It’s so much bigger than me,” Cooper said. “I want to speak for those that were actually killed in their homes by law enforcement and weren’t able to speak."
