The mother of 13-year-old Landry Thompson is enraged after her daughter was placed in handcuffs and taken away from the legal guardians watching over her during a trip.
Destiny Thompson is now demanding an apology from Houston police, who have yet to give a reason why Landry was placed in protective custody after they spotted her with her two black male guardians who also happened to be her dance instructors.
“I was horrified,’ said Thompson. “She was with the people I wanted her to be with. She was with people I trusted. And now she was taken away from those people and in a shelter with people I didn’t know.”
It all started during a trip from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas over the weekend, which was approved by Landry’s mother. The three were in town to take dance classes and were stopped at a gas station to check their GPS for directions to the hotel. Police spotted Landry with the dance instructors and decided to question them.
“They just pulled us out of the car. Put our hands behind our backs like we were criminals,” one of Thompson’s instructors, Emmanuel Hurd, told KHOU.
“The officer asked me ‘who’s the girl?’ and I said ‘she’s my student,’” said Hurd.
“I told him I had a notarized letter from her parents stating that we have full guardianship over her while we’re here.”
All three dancers said say they pleaded with the police repeatedly telling them their story, but that in the end, none of that seemed to matter.
“They still put handcuffs on me and it really scared me,” said Landry. “And they put me in the back of a cop car and I was terrified.”
Destiny Thompson was told she’d have to fly to Houston to get her daughter. But after a grueling 11 hours of phone calls and pleading, the officers released Landry back into the custody of her guardians.
Houston police have yet to comment on the incident. And they have not offered Landry and her instructors an apology either.
Not surprising. When do police ever admit they are wrong?
SOURCE: KHOU | PHOTO CREDIT: KHOU/Screengrab
