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Two black Rowan University students were held at gunpoint Monday when police suspected them of an armed robbery, the Courier Post reported.
A video recorded by an onlooker, embedded below, shows a student walking backward with his hands up, kneeling and then being taken away in handcuffs. Moments later another student followed the same path. Both obeyed the officers' commands and were held at the scene. They were released after the police checked the car.
"The police thought at that time there was an imminent threat," Joe Cardona, a university spokesman, told the Courier Post. “For the individuals itself, it’s traumatizing.”
The students' vehicle was similar to the one described by a witness of the robbery, and the police drew their weapons per protocol, believing that the armed suspects were inside, according to Cardona.
The incident was reminiscent of other instances nationwide where white police officers drew their weapons on black bystanders, and the Rowan University Student Government Association is working with the students to "organize an open forum to discuss these issues," Cardona said.
