Emerati man wearing headdress confronted by gun-toting cops in Ohio
He was accused of being an ISIL member because of the way he was dressed.
When Ahmed al-Menhali entered a hotel in one of Ohio’s Cleveland suburbs, he simply wanted to find an available room.
He did not imagine it would end with him having what was possibly a stroke while being accosted by gun-toting police following false accusations that he was a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
“It’s still not clear whether it was a stroke or not,” Julia Shearson, director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) rights group, told Al Jazeera.
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Menhali, a 41-year-old businessman and father of three from the United Arab Emirates, was in Cleveland for medical check-ups following health complications, including a previous stroke…
The incident was caught on tape by one of an officer’s body camera. It shows an officer hop out of his vehicle and load his rifle before running towards Menhali. The officers proceed to yell at him and put him on the ground.
He was handcuffed at first, but officers eventually removed them.
…officers ask Menhali about his mobile phones and identification cards several times. He eventually collapses to the ground. Emergency responders then load him on a gurney and take him to hospital.
“There was nothing to give you cause to think [I’m] a ‘terrorist’,” he said. “They told the police that I was pledging allegiance to ISIS, but [said] nothing about weapons. The police responded as if there were weapons.”
Menhali added: “We are consulting with lawyers and will decide where to go from there.”
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