Bena Apreala, a 29-year-old Black man, was jogging in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on Tuesday when he was stopped by at least three men in plainclothes, bulletproof vests and face masks. “Without identifying himself, [an officer] started asking me for identification, asking me where I was from, asking me who I was, what my business was around the area,” Apreala said. Apreala, who noticed one of the officers was wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge, questioned why he’d been stopped, because he’s a U.S. citizen. It was only when Apreala started recording the interaction that the men let him continue on his run, the Washington Post reports. As video of the incident spread on social media, Boston’s mayor, as well as city, state and national lawmakers, demanded an investigation into ICE’s actions.
“Let me be clear: racial profiling and stops like these are wrong, unjustified, and will not be tolerated,” said Mayor Marty Walsh. Apreala’s interaction with ICE is the latest incident of “jogging while Black” that has had national attention. A white father and son face murder charges in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was on a run in Georgia in February. Within weeks in August and September, joggers Mathias Ometu of San Antonio and Joseph Griffin of Deltona, Fl., were stopped by officers and handcuffed because police said they matched the description of a suspect. In Boston, Apreala was jogging a few miles from his home, when he noticed two black SUVs with tinted windows nearing him. “These guys just hopped out in full camouflage uniforms with masks over their face, and stopped me, and told me to immediately identify [myself],” he said. An officer told Apreala that he matched the description of a man they were investigating.