An 18-year-old Calgary teen is speaking out after he and his three friends were detained by Delta Police last week following a report of someone pointing a gun at a vehicle near Tsawwassen’s Centennial Beach.
Noel Kene and his friends were in B.C. last week on a camping trip. They had planned an outing to go to Centennial Beach and were on their way there when several DPD officers stopped their vehicle just before 12:30 p.m. on June 24.
“The police said someone in a white SUV pulled out a firearm and pointed it at someone in another vehicle,” said Kene, adding officers pulled their vehicle over, with guns drawn. “I asked them why we were under arrest and they said for possession of a firearm. They handcuffed us, read us our rights and put us all in separate police cars. They searched our car, said they didn’t find any evidence of a weapon and we were allowed to leave.”
Kene said one of the officers apologized, but he feels it was not a sincere apology.
“It felt really condescending,” he said, adding the group is talking about filing a complaint against the department. “Everyone is very upset. I wasn’t worried because I knew we didn’t do anything wrong, but it was a traumatic situation for sure.”
Kene said he feels there was some racial undertones to the arrest.
“Personally I felt it was like a sick joke. We knew we were innocent,” he said. “I generally do feel it was racially motivated to a degree and also a case of mistaken identity too, but I wonder if we would have been treated differently had we been white. I felt they [the police] were trying to prove we were guilty instead of assuring us that we were innocent. At that moment it felt like we were considered criminals, not citizens.”
Sgt. James Sandberg said police received a call at 12:05 p.m. from a woman claiming someone in an SUV with a white plate with red lettering license plates had pointed a gun at her while she and her young child were driving in their own vehicle.
The incident occurred on the road heading into the Centennial Beach parking lot.
Sandberg said an officer travelling eastbound on 3rd Ave. at 12:13 p.m. spotted an SUV matching the description of the suspect vehicle westbound on 3rd Ave.
“Due to the nature of the complaint, she [the officer] conducted a high risk traffic stop in the 500 block of Boundary Bay Road,” said Sandberg. “This road is the only road open that leads in or out of this area. Two more officers also responded to the traffic stop, while a fourth officer met the complainant at Centennial Beach for a more fulsome interview.
“Because of the allegation that a firearm had been pointed at someone, and the belief that it could be in the SUV, police officers treated the report as high risk and drew their firearms. This was done according to officer training, in a calm and controlled fashion.”
Sandberg said police arrested the four occupants of the SUV to ensure officer and public safety.
He said the vehicle occupants were cooperative throughout the entire process.
“The four occupants – all adults - were detained for about an hour and 15 minutes,” he said. “The occupants told police they were departing a rental property, and had gotten lost in the area, and were using a GPS to try and find their way. The vehicle was fully loaded with items that supported the information provided to police. Because of the large volume of items, police called a specialty trained firearms sniffing dog to expedite the search. Police did find a flashlight with a rechargeable battery pack, which officers thought could have been confused with a handgun. A thorough search of the car and the occupants did not locate a firearm and they were released without charge.”
Sandberg said based on the information provided by the complainant, and by the occupants of the SUV, officers are confident the vehicle that was stopped was in fact the one seen by the complainant.
“I believe, based on the information provided, she believed what she saw, so this was not a false or vexatious complaint,” said Sandberg. “At no time prior to that stop did we have any indications about the occupants of that car. We didn’t know the gender, the age, or the race of the occupants. I understand how he [Noel] feels and is looking at it through his lens, but I ask that he also reverses that lens and sees it from the side of the police officers as well. The priority for police in any jurisdiction is priority of life, so the first goal is safety of the police, the public and the subjects in the car.”
Sandberg said following the stop, officers took the time to explain their actions to the parties involved in the car, adding department policy calls for a more senior officer to attend the scene to assist with an investigation of this nature, and that step was taken.
“Officers made all attempts to ensure the vehicle occupants were dealt with in a respectful manner. They were placed into air conditioned police cars to ensure they were out of the heat, and also to help protect their privacy as bystanders were filming the interaction. A dog in the vehicle was also provided food and water, and the air conditioning was turned on to ensure the dog did not overheat,” he said.
Sandberg said if the group decides to file a complaint against the department, they are fully within their rights to do so.
