HARLEM, New York – Bob Marley's granddaughter Donisha Prendergast said she and two of her friends were the victims of racial profiling when the neighbors of the Airbnb they were renting didn't recognize them and called police to report a burglary.
The Rialto Police Department officers reported questioning Prendergast and her friends April 30 for about 20 minutes.
We "got surrounded by the police for being black in a white neighborhood," Prendergast wrote on Instagram during the incident.
Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, one of Prendergast's friends, said seven police cars and a helicopter responded. The officers ordered them to put their hands up. Eventually, officers were able to talk to Marie Rodriguez, the property owner, and let them go.
"What happened to us is an indignity," Prendergast said Thursday during a news conference in Harlem with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.
The department was served Monday with notification of pending legal action and added that the officer's Axon body cameras will serve as evidence.
The department released a statement saying they were "confident officers treated the involved individuals with dignity, respect and professionalism."
