FREMONT, Ohio — A Fremont restaurant owner was arrested last week in a case of mistaken identity.
Bodycam footage from the Fremont Police Department shows officers going into the Fremont Coney Island on July 11, owned by Darnell McCloud, looking for a person who had an outstanding warrant for drug trafficking.
McCloud, who has been in business for more than five years, says the incident is something that left him both shaken and disappointed at how he was treated.
"It's serious to me because I was humiliated at the time," he said.
"I was pleading my innocence from the beginning. All the way from the beginning, actually," McCloud added. "To be taken all the way down to the county jail for no reason, it was very humiliating."
Tyler Karr, a friend of McCloud's from Fremont, says what happened that day is just not right.
"It's honestly bull what happened to him and it should have never happened," Karr said. "They should have went the right way, asked him his last name, asked for identification before they even took him to begin with."
WTOL 11 reviewed the body cam video and at no point did the officers ask McCloud for his last name.
"If they would have looked at, if they would have just walked in and took the time instead of just rushing and did his job correctly, I think we would not be here right now," McCloud said.
"Organizations have reached out to me, but I'm just taking it slow. It was a bad situation. I just don't want it to happen to nobody else," he added.
Fremont police did not identify who they were looking for with the warrant. The incident is still under investigation.
McCloud said he is considering possible legal action.