HOUSTON (AP) -The son of a retired major league baseball player was recovering from injuries after he was shot outside his home early Wednesday by a police officer who thought the man was in a stolen SUV.
“The vehicle turned out not to be stolen,” Bellaire Assistant Police Chief Byron Holloway said.
The car belonged to the wounded man, Robert Tolan, son of former big leaguer Bobby Tolan.
Police and the Harris County district attorney’s office were investigating, and Tolan’s relatives accused police of singling out the 23-year-old because he is a black man.
“This is a classic case of racial profiling, I think,” said Mike Morris, the wounded man’s uncle.
Tolan, who was shot in the abdomen, was being treated at a Houston hospital. He was listed in stable condition and his injury was described as not life-threatening.
“The Bellaire Police Department know what they did, they know they did, and from that point on I’m going to let my attorneys take over,” said Bobby Tolan, who played for five teams during a 13-year major league career that ended in 1979.
department takes it “very seriously” any time a person is hurt.
“As far any allegations of racial profiling, I’d probably say that’s not going to float,” he said.
Robert Tolan was returning home about 2 a.m. with his 20-year-old cousin from a fast food restaurant when police pulled up as the pair got out of the SUV and walked toward Tolan’s parents’ house in the southwest Houston enclave.
Officers ordered Tolan and his cousin, Anthony Cooper, to kneel to the ground, then to lay on the ground. Tolan’s parents heard the commotion and came outside. Relatives said when one officer pushed Tolan’s mother up against a wall of the house, Tolan leaned up to complain about the treatment and was shot.
Holloway described it as an “altercation … as officers attempted to detain and question” the pair.
Cooper said all he and his cousin knew was that a car with bright lights pulled up and a man with a gun jumped out.
“He was saying “Stop! Stop! Stop!’ We were saying ‘Why? Why?”’ Cooper said. “We didn’t know he was a police officer.”
Holloway identified the officer involved in the shooting as Sgt. Jeff Cotton, who’s been on the force nearly 10 years. Cotton has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
Holloway told the Houston Chronicle that police had reports of several car burglaries in the area Tuesday night but didn’t know why officers mistakenly concluded Tolan was in a stolen car.
“All that will be determined in the investigation,” he said.
He said it wasn’t until after the shooting that authorities confirmed the car was not stolen.
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