‘He Looked Just Like Me’: Atlanta Man Tells CNN Cops Held Him at Gunpoint After Mistaking Him for Shooter
CNN aired an interview with a man who said cops pulled their guns on him when they mistook him for the man suspected of committing the mass shooting that took place today in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Police Department is searching for Deion Patterson, who remains at large after being identified as the suspect who killed one and wounded four others when he opened fire at Northside Hospital Medical. Police have released photos of Patterson while warning the public not to approach him, as he’s believed to be “armed and dangerous.”
CNN reporter Ryan Young was on the scene to cover the shooting and he spoke with Eddie Mwangi, a construction worker who was working at a site nearby. Young introduced Mwangi by telling viewers that “there was some confusion at some point whether or not Eddie might have been the suspect” because of how he was dressed.
Mwangi explained that he and his colleagues were being let out when a SWAT team locked down the parking garage where he was keeping his car.
“The officers came up to me, asked me for my ID, and then, y’know, pulled their guns on me,” Mwangi said. “I guess they thought it was me because, when I saw a picture of the suspect, he looked just like me. The only difference is he had a mask on.”
Mwangi said officers took him out of his car and took him and several others to an adjacent building where there were “a whole bunch of nurses crying” after they witnessed the shooting. He said that officers gave them a briefing on the situation, after which, he walked out.
“I was glad you didn’t take it personally,” Young told Mwangi. “You saw the picture, so you understand why they may have thought it was you.”
Young again highlighted the similarities between Patterson’s and Mwangi’s clothes as he asked the latter how surreal it was being suspected of the shooting. Mwangi answered by repeating that “he looked just like me, and was actually in the same parking garage that I was at.”
“I can understand why they thought it was me,” he said, “and I don’t take offense to that at all, as long as they get the guy.”
Watch above via CNN.
