A Black mother came to her son’s defense when he was pulled over in front of their home in Elk Grove, California for running a stop sign.
According to Stacy Harvey-Slocum, her son Tobias Eagle, a 19-year-old senior at Sacramento State University, had just pulled into their driveway when he noticed he was being approached by a patrol car. She and her husband came out of the garage and guided Eagle through his interaction with the officer while live streaming it on Facebook Live.
Harvey-Slocum said she instructed her son to take out his driver’s license, registration and insurance. The unidentified officer, who was wearing a Blue Lives Matter mask, told them Eagle had run past a stop sign and questioned whether he was on probation and parole. Despite hearing he wasn’t, she failed to run his name into the system or issue him a ticket.
“She just stood there, and then her hand was on her gun,” Harvey-Scotum said. She said that she asked the officer to give her son a ticket, but she chose to call for backup instead.
The officers that arrived told Harvey-Scotum their encounter with Eagle was “not an ordinary interaction,” and she responded with questions and facts about her son.
“How is this not ordinary?” she asked. “She pulled him over. Write the ticket. She was asking him if he was on probation or parole.”
“What’s not ordinary about that? That a Black man is not on probation or parole?…At 19 years old! That’s what he is,” she said. “He is my Black son.” “My son will not be another hashtag,” Eagle’s mother was also heard saying in the Facebook video.
Officers told Harvey-Scotum she was escalating the situation, but she continued to ask for a ticket to be cited. A male officer who later arrived as backup eventually gave Eagle the citation.
The Elk Grove police department apologized for the incident and has reportedly been in contact with Eagle’s family. Spokesperson Hannah Gray said they canceled a scheduled meeting with the department and chose to move forward with the process of making a formal complaint.