No word if the Security Police rolled up in a MRAP
What should have been a fun day at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force turned into a nightmare for a Columbus family who was pulled over and held at gunpoint while leaving the base.
The incident happened on Friday, and on Tuesday the family was still shaken up. They say that being held at gunpoint and put in handcuffs was excessive behavior, but the base says they were following their procedures.
“I’m looking at my 8-year-old grandson and his eyes are full of tears and he says ‘this is the worst day of my life,'” said Alice Hill, who was driving the car at the time they were pulled over. She’s still processing exactly what happened.
“We had been on spring break vacation, and my grandson wanted to see the Wright Brothers’ plane because that’s what he’s been studying in school,” Alice said.
She and her grandson, Aaron, were playing a game in the museum parking lot, searching for all of the out-of-state license plates during their walk into the museum.
“And he’s very excited, look at where all of these people have come from. They’re from Alaska, from New Mexico, they’re from Georgia,” Alice said.
But on their way out of the museum, the family van was pulled over.
“I’m looking in my side view mirror and I see him step out of his vehicle behind his door with his gun drawn pointing it at me,” Alice described.
She and her daughter-in-law, front passenger Wendy Hill, were taken from of the car at gunpoint, put in handcuffs, and put into the back of the police cruiser.
“My grandchildren are screaming, I mean they are hysterical, they saw the gun,” said Alice.
“My 5-year-old daughter is asking ‘is grandma going to get shot?'” Wendy said.
Hours later, the Hill family was told someone called 911 and reported that they had witnessed burglarizing cars in the museum parking lot.
“Then the officer said, ‘your plates are stolen,’ what?” Alice added.
“All we can do at this point is offer our apology to the Hills. And we’ve invited them to come out to the base and meet the security forces,” said Cassie Barlow, 88th Airbase Wing Commander at Wright-Patterson.
“Our security force, based on limited information, made a high-risk traffic stop and believed that this vehicle was stolen based on the information they received,” Barlow said.
But the Hill family still feels vulnerable, and questions why this happened to them.
“My son doesn’t trust police officers, now he views them as the bad guy,” Wendy said.
HT Blueburb