Taraji P. Henson claimed that her son was racially profiled by police in Southern California last year, but has now apologized after dash cam video proved that it was not the case.
Earlier this week, the Empire actress told Uptown Magazine that her 20-year-old son, Marcell Johnson, said he was racially profiled in Glendale during a traffic stop while at USC, a school he was thinking of transferring to. However, he ended up going to Howard University instead.
After her comments were published, USC offered to investigate, saying they were “disturbed” by the incident.
However, Glendale police chief Robert Castro told CNN that the police department dug up the dash cam video of Johnson’s stop in October. It shows an officer pulling him over for not yielding to a pedestrian. Johnson also tells the officer that he has marijuana, so Johnson was only charged with possession of marijuana. Castro said that he was not driving while impaired.
Later, Henson apologized to the police department on Instagram, writing, “As a mother in this case, I overreacted and for that, I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son.”
The police department later told CNN that it did appreciate the apology.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com