Black teen mistaken for burglar, pepper sprayed in his white foster parents’ home

Police officers pepper sprayed a black teenager in his white foster parents’ home after they mistook him for a burglar, authorities have said.

Cops responded to the home in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina after a neighbor saw 18-year-old DeShawn Currie entering his family’s home through an unlocked side door.

The teenager, who moved in with the Tyler family a year ago, said he was stunned when three police officers entered the home and demanded to know who he was.

‘They was like, “Put your hands on the door”,’ DeShawn told WTVD. ‘I was like, “For what? This is my house.” I was like, “Why are y’all in here?”‘

The police officers demanded his ID – which showed a different address – and refused to believe he was part of the family because he was not in any of the pictures on the mantelpiece in the home.

Police said they used pepper spray on the teenager when he ‘became profane, threatening and belligerent’ and ‘refused to follow instructions’ from officers.

Stacy Tyler, DeShawn’s foster mother, arrived back home to find the police officers there and told them that the teenager was her foster son.

Mrs Tyler and her husband, Ricky Tyler, have three other young children.

‘He’s my baby boy just as much as my other three children are,’ Stacy told WTVD of DeShawn.

The family moved into their new home in July and don’t know all their neighbors, the Tylers said.

But they were hurt that someone had assumed DeShawn was up to no good – and the teenager said the incident had made him feel less comfortable.

‘I had moved into my room, and I’m feeling like I’m loved,’ he said. ‘Then when they come in and they just profile me and say that I’m not who I am – and that I do not stay here because there was white kids on the wall. That really made me mad.’

Police said there had been a spate of crimes in the area recently, but did not specifically say how many or what kind.

More at The DailyMail Online.