A 74-year-old Georgia man who had pulled over to the side of the road to change a tire ended up arrested for aggravated assault against a police officer as well as making terrorist threats after police confused him for his 49-year-old son.
Jack Shaw ended up spending several days in jail and is now demanding accountability.
“I want to see somebody go to jail,” Shaw told WJCL News. “And I don’t mean some jail for cops. I mean a jail that I had to sit in. Eat the crap that I had to eat.”
The incident took place on July 8 after a Pooler police officer approached him while he was changing the tire and asked for identification. He said he refused to provide it at first considering he was under no legal obligation to do so.
But she kept persisting so he finally handed her his passport card.
However, the cop only pocketed the passport card without running his name. Instead, she ran his license plate number which somehow led her to believe Shaw was his son.
It does not appear as if his son had a bench warrant but the cop’s mistake sparked “a debate” between the two, according to WJLC News:
Instead, he says she ran his license plate and mistook him for his 49-year-old son. A debate followed while he was holding a tire iron. He says he told her “why don’t you just shoot me?” The officer threatened to use her taser and called for back up.
“Seventy-four-years-old and have five cops jump on you? for what,” asked (his son) Phillip Shaw. “He was changing a tire.”
Shaw ended up on the ground in handcuffs in the grass on Pooler Parkway.
“You cannot sweep the legs out of a 74-year-old man because he’s not complying,” said Phillip Shaw.
Pooler police told Shaw it is departmental policy to ask everybody for their identifications but Shaw knows better.
“Policy does not override the constitution,” he said. “The federal constitution is the law of the land.”
A grand jury will determine whether charges will proceed against Shaw.
