VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach's police chief says the detainment of an innocent man captured in now-viral video was not improper.
“When one assesses the circumstances, the stop, the detention, and the handcuffing were all reasonable in accordance within the law by which we are bound to assess such incident,” explained Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
In the video, police are seen handcuffing Jamar Mackey at Lynnhaven Mall just before Christmas. He didn't do anything wrong, but police detained him because they say he fit the description of a suspect they were looking for.
Addressing Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday, Neudigate started out by again publicly apologizing to Mackey, saying Mackey has a right to be upset about the whole situation.
“Anyone who is misidentified would be upset and that is certainly true for Mr. Mackey and his family,” he said.
Mackey was detained on December 19 as he ate lunch with his family at the mall food court. Neudigate said Mackey matched the description of a man using who used stolen credit cards.
Neudigate admits that officers had the wrong man. The police chief said the man they were looking for, now identified as Markee Smith, allegedly stole a car and was using stolen credit cards at the mall.
Neudigate showed city council members side-by-side images of Mackey and Smith. He said they both had on dark clothing, had a similar build, hairstyle, and both were with a minor who was wearing red.
While Neudigate publicly apologized to Mackey again, he added the sergeant followed the law and procedures.
“When we evaluate the stop and evaluate the circumstances based on the factors that were just presented, all the information known the sergeant knew at the time, we concluded that the sergeant had reasonable suspicion to detain Mr. Mackey in this incident,” the police chief said.
Neudigate said Mackey had been detained for 4 minutes and 11 seconds before he was released.
Moving forward, Neudigate wants to refresh implicit bias training, request for a review by the investigation review panel, add additional body cameras, and review current training and procedure.
The officers in the video did not have masks on. Neudigate said the department is disciplining them. After the incident, Mackey said he tested positive for COVID-19. He is now recovering from the virus.
Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer said he is proud of the overall work by the police department and calls the situation "regrettable" and "unfortunate."
"But we are going to learn from it as a city," said Dyer.
Dyer said he, Neudigate and City Manager Patrick Duhaney want to apologize to Mackey personally, but claims they have not been able to make contact.
"Attempts have been made unsuccessful to date," said Dyer. "But we are looking to have that meaningful conversation with Mr. Mackey and get things right. Hopefully, [Mackey] can help us rectify the situation."
Previously, Dyer said he wanted to wait until police completed their internal review to comment on the situation.