‘Who Are You?’: Minnesota Cops Body Slam Black Man, Cut His Backpack Straps After Mistaking Him for Another Man Who Is Younger and 90 Pounds Heavier. They Claim It Was Not Racial Profiling

By Jill Jordan Sieder In June of 2022, Derrick Gilbert was walking to his job as a line cook at a restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota, wearing a sleeveless red hoodie with the hood up. He was spotted by Willmar Police Officer Christopher Flatten, who was driving by and said he mistook Gilbert for a man he’d recently stopped for criminal trespass and who had an open arrest warrant. Flatten parked his patrol car and approached Gilbert, saying, “Sammy Price, you have a warrant.” Gilbert told the officer he was not Sammy and kept walking. He declined to tell Flatten his name or to produce identification when asked.& Over the next several minutes, three more law enforcement officers arrived and joined Flatten in tussling with Gilbert and forcing him down onto the sidewalk, cutting the straps off his backpack and cuffing him.& Derrick Gilbert walking away from Willmar police on June 22, 2022, captured on police dash cam video. (Credit: Willmar Police Dept.) They fished his driver’s license out of his back pocket and determined he was not Price. Then Flatten arrested him for “obstructing legal processes,” a misdemeanor, and took him to the Kandiyohi County Jail. He was released later...