WALLS, Miss. — A Walls, Mississippi man, says he was pulled over at gunpoint and handcuffed by Southaven police after Memphis officers failed to report his stolen car as recovered.
The Southaven Police Department released bodycam video to WREG of the encounter with their officers at Highway 301 North and Stateline Road in Southaven on April 11.
Bryson Davis says he was in downtown Memphis with friends on April 8 when someone stole his keys and his 2021 Hyundai Sonata. Davis reported it stolen on April 9 and, the same day, found the car on Madison Avenue.
“I started looking how to find my car through an app or something like that and found it could be connected through Bluelink on my phone and located my car myself, and I contacted MPD,” said Davis. “I contacted MPD before we got there and told them the location of the car.”
Davis said police took some fingerprints from the gas cap, and because he had a second set of keys, he was able to drive the car home.
“They did ride it rough,” said Davis. “They damaged the exterior of the car, big dents. It looks like they hit multiple poles and curbs.”
But the condition of his car was the least of his concerns two days later when Southaven police officers pulled him over.
“I immediately think it was still stolen under the system because there is no reason for them to pull me over,” said Davis.
In the bodycam video, you can see an officer pointing a gun toward Davis’s car. The officer tells Davis to step out of the vehicle with his hands up, walk backward toward him, and get on his knees.
“I was talking as soon as they put me in handcuffs. I was asking the police officers if the car on the record was stolen, and he said yes,” said Davis. “They put me on the hood, and there were five or six other officers and two detectives there.
Davis’s wallet was also stolen, and he had no identification on him. In the video, you can hear officers ask Davis his name and if he owns the vehicle.
“Then 10 minutes later, the DMV or someone sent a picture of my ID, and they had to match my identity to my face right there, and then they just let me go,” he said.
Davis said it all ended well, but he was rattled when he thought about what could have happened during the traffic stop.
“I could have been scared and moved too fast and gotten out of the car too quickly, and he could have thought something else because my car was black and I was wearing all black,” Davis said. “I was like, I could have lost my life just for some dumb stuff.
Davis’s mom says she got a call from her son after he was pulled over and said he was shaking when she got to him. Cindy Pate said the Southaven officers who pulled over her son were just doing their job. Instead, she blames Memphis police for what happened.
“I think with MPD dropping the ball of doing such, I’m sure a very routine protocol of taking a stolen vehicle out of NCIC this could have all been avoided, and for just a simple task of calling in and reporting it recovered,” said Pate “From a mother’s perspective I feel like I could have lost my son that evening,”
During the stop, you can hear an officer tell Davis that Memphis police were supposed to take his car off the system but didn’t. The officer also tells a detective that MPD messed up and didn’t take the vehicle off NCIC or the National Crime Information Center.
We contacted the Memphis Police Department to find out why Davis’s Hyundai Sonata was not reported as recovered on April 9 but have not received a response.
Pate said they are considering legal action, and she believes the officers involved should be reprimanded.
“Thankfully, it didn’t cost my son his life, but it has been a life-changing situation that he will never get over,” said Pate.
As for Davis’s car, the car thieves did so much damage to it in just hours that the vehicle had to be totaled.