By Chris Richburg
Just days after he was mistakenly pulled over and forced out of his car at gunpoint by Winnipeg police officers, Christian rapper Fresh I.E. received an apology from the city’s police chief.
According to Winnipeg police Chief Keith McCaskill, the error occurred Wednesday (June 4) after officers called in the license plate number of the rapper’s Chrysler 300 to a staff member to run it through a police computer.
The officers, who were at a Starbucks coffee shop, were suspicious after they saw the car exit the store’s drive-thru only and immediately swing back around and quickly drive past the take-out window again.
As it turned out, Fresh I.E.(born Robert Wilson) and his 20-year-old passenger Alex Smerchynski had forgotten a coffee and drove through a second time in order to retrieve it.
"These two people (in) that vehicle did absolutely nothing wrong...this was our mistake," McCaskill told the Winnipeg Free Press.
After the police boxed in his vehicle, Wilson, who also serves as a Christian minister, was told to empty his pockets after at least one gun was drawn.
Despite repeatedly saying that his car was not stolen, officers placed the rapper in a cruiser car. Eventually, police did check Wilson’s ID and registration.
It was at that point they realized their mistake after checking with police dispatchers.
Despite accepting McCaskill’s apology, Wilson still alleges that the police were guilty of racial profiling.
"He saw me, he saw my car, and in his mind he made a decision," the rapper told the Free Press about the police officer at Starbucks. "I can't read his mind. I really do believe that some kind of racial thing was involved."
