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Iowa City PD releases video of police interaction with Iowa DL Faith Ekakitie

The Iowa Hawkeyes take the field for their NCAA college football game against the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)
The Iowa Hawkeyes take the field for their NCAA college football game against the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)

The Iowa City Police Department released body camera footage of the interaction between officers and Iowa defensive lineman Faith Ekakitie.

Ekakitie wrote last week in a Facebook post that he was stopped in a park by officers while he was playing Pokemon Go on his cell phone. Ekakitie said he was wearing headphones at the time and was approached by officers with guns drawn.

Ekakitie fit the description – a large black man wearing black clothing – of an armed bank robbery suspect. Officers searched Ekakitie and briefly questioned him before releasing. The interaction spanned approximately six minutes. In his Facebook post, Ekakitie said he was frightened by the encounter but was thankful for the professionalism of the officers involved.

Ekakitie’s account of the situation quickly spread across the internet and media, so the ICPD released the video “in order to make the community aware of the manner in which this interaction occurred.”

Here are the two videos released:

Ekakitie was stopped by police – four uniformed officers and two plainclothes officers –in a park “approximately a quarter mile north” of the bank where robbery took place.

From the ICPD’s release:

At 2:03 p.m. a man matching the general description of the suspect was observed near Benton Hill Park, which is located on West Benton Street approximately a quarter mile north of the First American Bank location. Contact was made with the man, who was later identified as Mr. Faith Ekakitie, by two uniformed Iowa City Police Officers and one uniformed Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy. In addition, two plain clothes Iowa City Police Department Investigators and one uniformed University of Iowa Police Officer and his K-9 responded.

As contact was made with Mr. Ekakitie, it was immediately noticed that he was wearing headphones and might not be able to hear the officers’ instructions. Within two minutes of the initial contact, officers determined that Mr. Ekakitie was not the suspect. Officers then explained why they had detained him. After routine checks to verify Mr. Ekakitie’s identify were completed, officers left the park.

At 2:11 p.m. the six minute interaction with Mr. Ekakitie was concluded, officers thanked him for his cooperation and he was released.

“The Iowa City Police Department would like to thank Mr. Ekakitie for his understanding and cooperation as the police department was responding to a dangerous armed robbery,” the ICPD’s release said.

Ekakitie had 13 tackles along with 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack as a junior in 2015.

Here is his Facebook post from Wednesday, July 20, in full:

Today was the first time that I’ve ever truly feared for my life, and I have the media to thank for that.

Today I was surrounded and searched by approximately five Iowa City Police Officers. My pockets were checked, my backpack was opened up and searched carefully, and I was asked to lift up my shirt while they searched my waistband. Not once did they identify themselves to me as Iowa City Police officers, but with four gun barrels staring me in the face, I wouldn’t dare question the authority of the men and woman in front of me. This is what happened from my point of view.

From the police officers point of view, all they knew was that a bank had just been robbed less than ten minutes ago. The suspect was a large black male, wearing all black, with something on top of his head and the suspect is armed. As they drive past an Iowa City park that was less than 3 minutes away from the bank that was just robbed, they notice a large black man, dressed in all black, with black goggles on his head. They quickly move to action and identify themselves as the Iowa City police and ask me to turn around and place my hands up. I do not comply, they ask again, and again no response from me. So they all draw their guns and begin to slowly approach the suspect.

In this situation, what the media would fail to let people know is that the suspect had his headphones in the entire time the Police Officers approached him initially. The suspect had actually just pulled up to the park because he was playing a newly popular Game called Pokémon Go. The suspect didn’t realize that there were four cops behind him because his music was blaring in his ears. The suspect had reached into his pockets, for something which was his phone, but for all the cops could have known, he was reaching for a gun. The suspect could very well become another statistic on this day. I am not one to usually rant on Facebook or anywhere else, but with all of the crazy things that have been happening in our world these past couple of weeks it is hard to stay silent. I am thankful to be alive, and I do now realize, that it very well could have been me, a friend of mine, my brother, your cousin, your nephew etc. Misunderstandings happen all the time and just like that things can go south very quickly. It is extremely sad that our society has brainwashed us all to the point where we can’t feel safe being approached by the police officers in our respective communities. Not all police officers are out to get you, but at the same time, not all people who fit a criminal profile are criminals.

So with that, I would like the thank the Iowa City Police department for handling a sensitive situation very professionally. I would also urge people to be more aware of their surroundings because clearly I wasn’t. Lastly, I would urge us all to at least to attempt to unlearn some of the prejudices that we have learned about each other and now plague our minds and our society. I am convinced that in the same way that we learned these prejudices, we can also unlearn them.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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