A Black jogger who was arrested last week by San Antonio Police officers who were seeking a different man is now alleging that he was a victim of police brutality and civil rights violations.
Mathias Ometu, a Nigerian-American insurance agent, has spoken out about being arrested last week after police detained him as a suspect involved in a felony family violence incident. Ometu was jogging near an apartment complex where a woman had called in a domestic violence complaint when he was approached by officers who detained him and asked him for ID.
Ometu refused the request and was subsequently handcuffed and told to sit in a police car. Video shot by a witness shows the jogger putting up a struggle before ultimately being shoved into the patrol car. Officers later admitted that he was not the suspect they were looking for.
“I felt like I was trapped, held against my will,” Ometu said at a news conference on Wednesday. Police would later say Ometu, who was wearing a light green athletic shirt and shorts at the time of his arrest, fit the description of the suspect, whom they described as wearing a bright green shirt and shorts at the time officers were seeking him.
But Ometu’s attorney, Artessia House, said that there are no similarities between the two men other than they were both Black.
“I felt targeted,” Ometu said. Even after the victim involved in the felony family violence call confirmed at the scene of the detainment that Ometu was not the man who had assaulted her, he was taken to Bexar County jail, where he spent two days.
Officers say that the situation would not have escalated if Ometu had revealed his identity when officers approached him, but his attorney says in Texas an individual does not have to give their identity to police if they are not arrested or are operating a motor vehicle at the time.
“Not wanting to be bothered, as I am in the middle of a run and feeling targeted, I refused to give the officer any personal information as I have not committed a crime, and relayed this to the officer,” Ometu said at the news conference.
He said he was aware of the fact that he did not have to reveal his identity to the officer at the time.
“When I refused to provide it, I was placed in handcuffs aggressively to the point that I’m still feeling that pain in my wrists. The officers advised me that I was being detained for a crime that I knew nothing about,” he said. “I allowed the officers to handcuff me with no resistance.”
The arrest occurred at 2 p.m. on Aug. 25, and the handcuffs were not removed until 11 p.m. that night, Ometu says..
“I was told to calm down, but there is nothing calm about placing an innocent man in the back of a police vehicle. I was guilty before proven innocent.”
Ometu said that he was injured during the arrest and that even after he made this known to officers, they continued to open and shut the door to the patrol car in a way that aggravated his injuries, as he situated in such away that left him leaning against the door.
Officers told him that he would not be charged with any crimes related to the family violence call, but that he would be charged with assaulting an officer. Two officers claimed that Ometu had kicked them during the struggle.
“I was absolutely baffled when I heard these crimes that I was being charged for,” he said. The witness video depicts Ometu kicking vigorously during the officers’ struggle to put him in the car.
Ometu said that he was not informed that he could contact a lawyer or family member for days. He said officers ignored his requests to make contact with a lawyer or family member, and that by the afternoon of August 26 he had still not been in contact with an attorney or loved one. He says was not given any food until 6 a.m. after his arrest, and says he was kept in in cold room.
“I was stripped naked,” he said. “I was exposed.”
“I felt violated, extremely violated.”
He was initially appointed a lawyer that had been dead for nine years. His criminal defense attorney Adam Kobs also spoke at the press conference, saying, “I was not aware that he had already spent two days in jail, having been appointed an attorney that passed away many years ago. There’s no reason why this young man, Mr. Ometu, who is employed at USAA, should have spent two days in custody based on an error.”
The charges against Ometu have been dropped, and he now plans to seek redress for his ordeal.
“My name is not clean, and that has to be addressed,” he said. “I was punished for invoking my rights, and that has to be addressed. I was treated unfairly, and that has to be addressed. I was physically, emotionally, and mentally harmed, and that has to be addressed.”
Darren Smith Jr., the suspect thought to be involved in the felony family violence call and the man police were looking for the day of Ometu’s arrest, was arrested on Friday on an unrelated robbery warrant. He has not been charged in connection to the family violence incident.
