Texas Police Threatened to Arrest Ahmed Mohamed's Father, Internal Memos Show
Ahmed, his father, and their lawyer. Image: Associated Press

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Texas Police Threatened to Arrest Ahmed Mohamed's Father, Internal Memos Show

"Why don't you take your son and leave before we criminally trespass you from the police department."

Ahmed Mohamed's father was almost arrested, too.

Documents obtained by Motherboard suggest that an Irving, Texas police officer threatened to arrest Mohamed El-Hassan Mohamed, the father of the 14-year-old who was arrested in September for bringing a clock to his high school, after a shouting match about what happened to his son.

Several previously unreleased internal memos sent by police department employees to Irving Police Department chief Larry Boyd detail Mohamed's detainment and his release. The memos say that Mohamed was "rude," had an "attitude," "was loud and disrespectful," and was visibly upset that he would not be allowed to take his clock home upon his release; they also say the boy's father got into a loud argument with several police officers. The documents were obtained by Motherboard using a Texas Public Information Act request and are embedded at the bottom of this story.

Advertisement

A police officer told the boy's father that he would be arrested for criminal trespass if he didn't take Ahmed and leave.

"Ahmed's father was still yelling at Sgt. [Jeff] Mitchell. Sgt. Mitchell told them 'Why don't you all take your son and leave before we criminally trespass you from the police department,'" Christina Anguiano, a police records clerk, wrote in one memo.

The basic accounts provided in the memos seems to match: Mohamed's family was very upset he was arrested, and Ahmed Mohamed himself was allegedly furious that he couldn't take his clock and tablet computer home with him because it was being entered as evidence.

"Ahmed asked, 'Can I have my devices back?'" Karina Perla, who was working at the office's record section wrote in a memo. "I replied, 'What do you mean your devices?' He said, 'Yeah my clock and my tablet.' I then pulled up the report, and looked in property tab and noticed that it was listed as evidence. I then said, 'You will need to speak with the person in charge of your case because it is listed as evidence and evidence is not releaseble[sic].' He then yelled at me and slammed his hand on the counter and said, 'WHY IS MY DEVICE LISTED AS EVIDENCE? I AM BEING RELEASED! I NEED IT BACK RIGHT NOW!!'"

In the end, the family left without the clock.

Ahmed Mohamed

AG Opinion Request - Tibbetts Aug 14

Memo to Chief- Mohamed

Scanned From a Xerox Multifunction Device

Advertisement