Another Metro Vancouver teenager claims he was a victim of mistaken identity — and roughed up by the RCMP.
According to the RCMP, the incident happened Dec. 20, 2016. Jacob Callender-Prasad says he was leaving the corner store at Main Street and Milross Avenue in Vancouver, after picking up groceries for his mom. It was then, he says, he first believed someone was watching him.
“The first time I went, I noticed a dude looking through the mirror of the back store window,” Callender-Prasad says. “I thought I was being watched I thought someone was following me.”
The then 17-year-old mentioned to the store owner, a family friend, what he’d seen, as well as telling his mother when he returned to his apartment building behind the store.
He says he returned to the store, having forgotten some items. That’s when, he says, police moved in.
“I turned the corner and he takes his gun out and just points it at me like this and starts screaming get on the ground, get on the ground,” Callender-Prasad says.
“At that point, a bunch of other officers — undercover officers — come in with their guns out pointing at me, telling me to get on the ground and everyone just screaming at me. I was right here, put my hands up… get on the ground… don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”
Callender-Prasad says he was handcuffed. Burnaby RCMP officers would later identify themselves and admit their mistake.
“They then told me I was a victim of mistaken identity and I was the wrong person they were looking for,” he says, adding officers did apologize, offering him a $25 gift card for the movies and offering a tour of the Burnaby detachment.
He accepted and used the gift card but says the memory lingered.
READ MORE: Surrey teen taken down by police in case of mistaken identity, says family
A similar incident involving a teen in Surrey prompted him to share his story.
“To see a weapon drawn at you, to have people pin you down to the ground and handcuff you in front of the neighbourhood that you lived in your whole entire life impacts you dramatically,” Callender-Prasad says. “You start having trust issues with your own police officers.”
RCMP says on the night of Dec. 20, officers were searching the area for a man wanted for attempted murder.
In an email, a spokesperson says not long after the incident happened, “two senior RCMP members later met with the man and his mother to once again go over the circumstances of the incident and address any concerns they may have.”
“It is unfortunate that this situation occurred and we understand how upsetting this incident was for the young man and his family.”
However, Nalda Callender, Jacob’s grandmother and the executive director of the National Congress of Black Women, says what frightens their family most is what they believe could have happened.
“I’m very thankful that Jacob never ran because had he run, I doubt very much he would have been here today,” she says.
Jacob hopes police consider more carefully how these incidents affect youth—particularly young people of colour.
“People need to be aware of what happened to me and not only what happened to the girl in Surrey and we make sure this doesn’t happen again to people,” he says.
“When I see cops now in general too, it’s a very uneasy feeling.”