Cincinnati has reached a $151,000 settlement after a retired cop accused a Black real estate agent and his client of breaking into a home in a predominantly white neighborhood.
Police body camera video shows one of six police officers on the scene aiming a gun at Anthony Edwards and his real estate agent, Jerry Isham.
“The city regrets this extremely unfortunate and unnecessary situation,” Cincinnati City Manager Patrick Duhaney said Thursday in a statement to Atlanta Black Star. “Mr. Isham and Mr. Edwards did nothing wrong.”
Included in the settlement is voluntary training with police and the Board of Realtors.
“Further, we are in the process of implementing implicit bias training for all city employees,” Duhaney said. “We sincerely apologize.”
The incident depicted in police footage unfolded after Edwards and Isham say they used a lock box to enter the house in the 1000 block of Morado Drive in West Price Hill Nov. 17, 2018, according to the 16-page complaint Fox 19 obtained.
Officers said they responded to the scene in question after a retired officer, Tom Branigan, who lives in the neighborhood, called 911 to report a break-in at the house in question, according to the news outlet.
In the body-camera video, one of the responding officers can be heard yelling at the men, “Hands up!”
“My hands up. What y’all doing?” Edwards asked.
Body camera video shows officers escorting him off of the home’s front steps, where he is handcuffed, searched and questioned.
One officer asks Edwards for ID, and he takes it out and says, “You should have did all that when you first pulled up.”
The comment prompted at least two officers on the scene to yell at Edwards, with one of them saying, “Hey, you’re not a cop. I’m doing my job, OK?”
Another officer can be heard asking Edwards to relax, to which he responds, “I am relaxed. I’m cool. I’m just talking to him, but if we was white though, y’all wouldn’t have nagged us.”
An officer on the scene responds, “Quit playing the race card, OK? That stuff doesn’t fly anymore.”
Edwards disagrees and continues talking to officers.
The body camera video also shows police officers placing Isham in handcuffs. He told Fox 19 Monday his 9-year-old son was waiting in a car.
“I didn’t want him to see me being arrested,” Isham said.
