Jeremiah Spearman was walking home in the cold with his hands in his pockets. A police officer decided that meant he had a gun.
According to WWMT, the 16-year-old was stopped by Battle Creek, Michigan, police on June 14 while walking down Hubbard Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
Body camera footage released by police shows an officer pulling up and yelling, "Come here. You're not in trouble. What's going on?" per Atlanta Black Star, which obtained the footage. Spearman kept walking. "What am I being detained for? I'm walking home," he said. He was handcuffed shortly after.
The reason, according to the officer's report obtained by the outlet: Spearman was seen clutching his pants, which the officer described as a sign someone may be concealing a weapon.
Spearman explained it simply in comments to WWMT. "I was clutching my pants because it was below 60 degrees, my hands were in my pants for warmth," he said. He told officers he had a pocket knife in his pocket — legal for a 16-year-old to carry — and was searched and released shortly after with no charges filed.
The officer's written report went further, also claiming Spearman was wearing a mask to conceal his identity, despite his face being blurred in the released footage, making that claim impossible to verify independently.
"I know that when a subject clutches their hand to their body after seeing the police is a characteristic of carrying or concealing a weapon," the officer wrote. "Also, through my training and experience, I know that people who wear masks and conduct this behavior are trying to conceal their identity."
Spearman's mother, Martricia Spearman, didn't hold back. "They racially profiled my son because he was walking through the hood. As a Black boy, with his hands in his pants, he had to have a gun on him," she told Atlanta Black Star.
This wasn't Spearman's first encounter with Battle Creek police. He told WWMT a separate incident two weeks earlier left him even more shaken.
"He tackled me like a football player, like wrapped his arms around me, had his knee in my back when I was on the ground, it was horrible," Spearman said of that prior stop. Police Chief Shannon Bagley confirmed to the outlet that a previous incident occurred, but has not released further details or that body camera footage, despite the family's repeated requests.
According to WWMT, Battle Creek Mayor Mark Behnke said he reviewed the footage and had concerns about the officer's approach, though he declined to elaborate, deferring to the city's new Community Oversight Board, which is scheduled to take up the case on July 10. Bagley has defended the stop as consistent with department policy, telling the outlet: "This is not how we police, not that those things don't happen, and that will be reviewed."
The numbers around Battle Creek policing add weight to the family's concerns. According to data compiled by Police Scorecard and reported by WWMT, Black residents make up roughly 18 percent of the city's population but account for approximately 49 percent of all arrests, and are 3.2 times more likely than white residents to be arrested for low-level, nonviolent offenses. The same data shows all four people killed by Battle Creek police between 2013 and 2023 were Black, and zero percent of use-of-force complaints filed by civilians during that period were ruled in the complainant's favor.
Spearman told WWMT the encounter has changed how he moves through his own neighborhood. "I feel unsafe walking on the streets now. Don't even feel the same. I'll be turning my head every second," he said.
His mother is now seeking legal representation and pushing for the release of the earlier body camera footage. "You released the body camera video of the second incident — where is the first video?" she asked, per Atlanta Black Star.