Man wrongly detained responds after 3 police departments issue public apology for mistakenly identifying him

The Bloomington, Edina and Richfield Police Departments issued a public apology on Saturday extending their apologizes to a man that they mistakenly identified and detained during a traffic stop on Friday.

The police departments posted the apology after Darrius D. Strong posted a video on Facebook detailing his experience during the traffic stop.

Sunday, at a park near his Burnsville home, Strong said he keeps thinking through the terrifying traffic stop.

"I felt like my life was in danger, I had to let people know I’m scared of the cops, so who do I go to?" he said.

Strong is a choreographer and dance instructor at the University of Minnesota along with Macalester College. He also teaches at a performance art studio in Bloomington. He’d just finished a class and was headed home on Old Shakopee Road about 1 p.m. when he saw police lights flashing behind him and he pulled over.

In a public statement posted on the Richfield Police Department’s Facebook page, the department explained officers ran his license plated and "noted the registered owner had a suspended Minnesota driver’s license and felony-level warrant for his arrest," which the department considers high-risk and often result in officers drawing their weapons.

"I look up and through the rearview mirror I see a lady cop walking up with a gun, walk up to the door, I threw my hands out the window and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on,’ she asked, ‘Are you Darrius Strong?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I want you to unbuckle your seat belt, you have a warrant out for your arrest,’ I said, ‘Warrant, what do you mean?’"

Strong said he complied as the Richfield police officer handcuffed him and put him in the back of the squad. He also kept asking questions, "Hey, are you sure you have the right Darrius Strong, I spelled it out and I can give you my social what do you need I can give you anything to prove I don’t have a felony on my record and she’s going through the computer and I said, ‘Am I going to jail for this thing?’ and she said, ‘Well, we’re going to call a tow to come and get your car right now’ … I felt like something was going to happen that it was going to be shady with how the whole situation goes, this happens this is how George Floyd died in a moment of stress, this happens."

According to police, someone had falsely used Strong’s name when writing a forged check, which is why there was an arrest warrant in his name. Strong said Sunday that he doesn’t have checks. Two other officers, one from Edina the other from Bloomington, joined the scene. The Richfield officer did further checks in the state database and said they had the wrong guy. One officer let strong out of the squad and walked with him back to Strong’s car to check his license and make another confirmation of the mistaken identity. Strong was then released.

The information given in the statement and in Strong’s video showed some conflict of details. Therefore, police stated that they plan to release the squad car dash camera video of the incident on Monday to promote being transparent. Strong said he hopes it also includes audio, "so you can hear our conversation and the words being said back and forth between me and the cops."

In the online apology, the Richfield police department emphasized no enforcement action was taken and they regretted the unfortunate case. Strong said he left that scene and drove to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to try and get his name and record cleared. He left with a letter to show officers if he’s stopped again, which explains someone else falsely used his name, which led to the warrant being issued.