20-Year-Old Held At Gunpoint For No Headlights In South Carolina, Cop Apologizes “Sorry To Scare You, It Happens”

A 20-year-old boy found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time over the weekend.

Around 10:30 p.m., Noah West was driving in Summerville, South Carolina, without his headlights, when a police officer noticed him and pulled him over.

Although the traffic violation was minor, the officer took some pretty extreme measures — holding a gun to West’s head.

The reason the officer took such measures is because he essentially profiled West for being a burglar.

You see, a couple of blocks away, a violent incident had just occurred. “Someone shot up a house, and cops were on the hunt for the perp,” according to news outlets. The cop saw a guy driving without lights in the dark, which was enough to raise suspicion.

In the video, you hear the officer consulting with the boy’s mother, explaining to her what’s going on.

“You good with that?” he asked. She answered she was not “but seemed to understand,” TMZ reported.

Once the officer realized West was not the culprit, he peacefully let him go.

According to the policeman, “it was a case of someone being at ‘the wrong place at the wrong time.'”

Given police track records with Blacks in the country, West was terrified for his life, rightfully so.

“I feared for my life. I stayed calm and was so polite to the police,” West said afterward.

The officer did apologize to him, saying, “Sorry to scare you, it happens.”

Although it was not that great of an apology, West decided to use this situation to educate people.

“I’m going to tell this story to my kids and my siblings when they’re ready. They’re going to see how calm I was and know what to do. And they’re going to know not to act crazy because the police will act crazier and not get in trouble for it.”