Black ministers upset over police treatment of pastor

Received by Newsfinder from APFeb 14, 2005 0:10 Eastern Time YORK, Pa. (AP) _ The president of York’s Black Ministers Association said he is outraged by the treatment of a pastor who was handcuffed and questioned at gunpoint after police mistook him for a bank robber. The Rev. Aaron Willford Jr. said what happened to the Rev. Troy L. Hopkins last week was not settled by an apology from Northern York County Regional Police Chief Carl Segatti on Friday. “The church community is in an uproar. We remain Christians, but right now we’re in an uproar,” Willford said Saturday. “You can’t sit back and continue to allow these kinds of things to happen.” Hopkins, his wife and their 12- and 13-year-old sons had just been to the Sovereign Bank on Route 30 and were headed to do some shopping around 6 p.m. Wednesday when police pulled them over in Manchester Township. Using a bullhorn, police ordered Hopkins out of the car, and he and his wife were handcuffed and made to kneel along the road while some officers had their guns drawn, officials said. Segatti said police had been looking for a robber wanted in a series of bank heists. The robber’s race, weight and height _ as well as the time that he visited the bank and the fact that he was carrying a white bag _ matched up with Hopkins, he said. Segatti said police “erred in stopping Rev. Hopkins” but added that they followed their training and initially thought they were dealing with an armed suspect. He said officers did not single out Hopkins because of his race. Ray Crenshaw, president of the York chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he’s not sure Hopkins experience would stand up in court as racial profiling. But he said he does question the amount of force used and the duration of the incident, which lasted about 30 minutes.