Charges dropped against Black jogger mistakenly identified as a suspect in Texas
Prosecutors dropped all charges against a Black jogger who was mistakenly identified as a domestic violence suspect and arrested during an altercation with San Antonio police.
At the request of the officers involved, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales dropped the case Tuesday and expunged the record of Mathias Ometu, 33, who had been charged with two counts of assault on a peace officer.
"After reviewing all the evidence as well as considering all the facts and circumstances, I have decided that the just outcome is the dismissal of all charges against Mr. Ometu," Gonzales said in a statement.
On Aug. 25, a woman called police saying her ex-husband had assaulted her. She described her assailant as a Black man with "just a little bit of scruff on his chin," wearing a green shirt and black basketball shorts, who fled on foot, according to police body-camera footage.
Officers detained Ometu, an insurance adjuster for USAA, who was on an afternoon jog. In the video, Ometu has a beard and is wearing white basketball shorts.
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The officers tried to question him and said he matched the description of a suspect. Ometu declined to identify himself and insisted he had done nothing wrong. The Texas Penal Code states that a person being detained or questioned by police is not required to provide identifying information.
The officers attempted to put him into the back seat of a patrol car as the confrontation escalated. The video went dark. The woman who had called police arrived at the scene and told them Ometu was not the suspect.
Ometu was charged with kicking two police officers, one of them in the face, and he spent the next two days in jail. Darren Anthony Smith Jr., 25, the correct suspect, was taken into custody, according to local media.
LEFT a 2017 mugshot of Darren Anthony Smith Jr. a domestic violence suspect w/ robbery warrant SAPD was searching for Tuesday.
RIGHT is Mathias Ometu, the man police stopped and say refused to identify himself. Ometu is now facing 2 felonies for assault on police. @KENS5 pic.twitter.com/NzHJU7itQd— Aaron Wright (@AaronKENS5) August 29, 2020
Gonzales and San Antonio Police Chief William McManus maintained that Ometu fit the description of the suspect. McManus said Tuesday that this was "an unfortunate situation for everyone involved."
McManus defended his officers, saying Ometu should have cooperated and identified himself to police, in a memo dated Sunday to City Manager Erik Walsh.
"I have determined that the officers acted appropriately, within their legal authority," McManus said in the memo shared Tuesday. "Unfortunately the situation could have been resolved within minutes with any degree of information sharing with the police officers."
Gonzales said Tuesday in his statement that Ometu was under no obligation to identify himself or give a statement to police. Ometu’s attorney, Adam Kobs, expressed thanks for the decision to not pursue a prosecution but said that didn’t absolve the department.
“The San Antonio Police Department is far from blameless. They falsely accused and unjustly arrested an innocent Black man,” Kobs said. “SAPD’s misconduct needs to be investigated, and we expect a future inquiry and examination to occur.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black jogger mistakenly identified as Texas suspect; charges dropped
