White Police Officer Accuses Black Man of Stealing His Own Bag at the Airport
Updated June 9 2023, 3:28 p.m. ET
At the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, TikTok creator @rae_of_light (Rae) captured a horrifying situation wherein a police officer accused a Black man, Daeshaun, of stealing his own bag after getting up to throw something away.
According to the creator, Daeshaun briefly left his bag unattended at his gate, and while he was away, a family grabbed it and gave it to a police officer.
After asking if anyone knew who the bag belonged to, employees believed it possibly belonged to another family who had just boarded their flight, and that was when Daeshaun came back and pointed out that those were his belongings.
However, the white police officer refused to give him back his bag without a fight — and that is when Rae started recording the confrontation. Here's what happened.
A white airport cop accused a Black man of stealing his own bag.
When Daeshaun told the MSP airport employee that the bag belonged to him, the police officer immediately didn’t believe him and threatened to arrest him.
Even after Daeshaun explained that he had left the bag unattended while he threw something away and gave the officer his ID, the man continued giving him a hard time and wouldn’t let him obtain his property.
When Rae realized that the white police officer wasn’t going to listen to Daeshaun, she had her nine-year-old daughter keep recording as she intervened.
The airport cop gave the Black man his bag back when a white woman spoke up.
Unfortunately, it took Rae speaking on Daeshaun’s behalf for the white police officer to return his belongings.
The creator told the cop that she had seen Daeshaun sitting with the backpack earlier and that she saw him leave the property unattended as he went to throw something away.
Unsurprisingly, the MSP employee immediately took Rae’s word for it — and refused to let Daeshaun prove it by showing him the plane ticket with his name inside the bag.
“I’m not sure which is worse,” one user commented on the creator’s TikTok. “The fact he wouldn’t just let him show him the ticket in the bag as proof or that he just took the white lady’s word for it.”
And in her follow-up video further explaining the situation, Rae couldn’t agree more. “From what I can tell, the fact that once I stepped in, the cop changed his tone — that feels like racial profiling to me,” the creator noted.
The white woman shed light on why she recorded the confrontation with the airport cop.
When Rae sat down to provide more information about why she taped the confrontation between the MSP police officer and Daeshaun, she explained that she took the video so Daeshaun could have hard evidence and file a formal complaint.
In her original video, the creator revealed that she immediately sent the clip to Daeshaun after he retrieved his belongings and filed a formal complaint herself.
And in the creator’s follow-up TikTok, Daeshaun expressed his appreciation for Rae intervening. “Thank you for the support and the help!” he wrote. “GOD BLESS!”
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission provided the following statement to Distractify about the incident: "The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is aware of a social media video that alleges racial profiling by an MSP Airport Police officer. On June 1, the officer observed an unattended backpack in a gate area, which is a security hazard, and began attempting to establish ownership of the bag. A nearby passenger reported they believed the bag belonged to a family that had already boarded the plane.
"The officer was attempting to verify ownership of the unattended bag through airline staff when a passenger approached him to claim the item. While waiting for airline staff to connect with the family on board, an additional bystander identified the bag as belonging to the individual claiming ownership.
"The MAC takes all allegations of discrimination seriously. The MSP Airport Police Department is currently reviewing information related to this response, including additional video sources, to ensure the officer followed the department’s expectations and policies.
"MSP Airport has a security ordinance that follows federal guidance prohibiting unattended luggage, as these items may potentially contain threats to the airport and travelers. MSP Airport Police regularly respond to cases of unattended luggage."
