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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A 25-year-old Antioch man had a run in with the law Tuesday afternoon. But it took a broken car window, along with some bumps and bruises before police realized they had the wrong man.
Yonatan Tessema is a driver for ABC Express Transportation. He was at Centennial Medical Center waiting on a client who was at a doctor's appointment.
Just around 2 p.m. Tuesday, Tessema got the call his client was ready to go home.
"I was running from the hospital to my car because I didn't want to keep my client waiting outside," Tessema explained.
What the Ethiopian immigrant did not know was Metro Police officers had staked out that parking lot looking for a fugitive.
When Tessema got to his car, unmarked Metro Police cars blocked him in his parking space.
"That's when they started flashing their lights, saying get the "F" out of the car, cursing," according to Tessema.
The driver said before he could get out of the car, officers came rushing up to him.
"Out the corner of my eye I could see a policeman running and he just knocked out my window," Tessema said.
Tessema claimed he had already slightly opened his door when the window was broken.
"And then they pulled the door open. Somebody grabbed me from the side. Somebody grabbed my legs and they just pushed me down to the ground," Tessema added.
All the while Tessema was asking the officers why he was being arrested, but he could not get them to answer his question.
Once in custody, officers asked Tessema his name and a few minutes later they took the handcuffs off of him and admitted they had targeted the wrong person.
"Everyone was acting in good faith. The officers were trying to take a bad guy off the streets. A really bad guy," according to Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron.
Aaron confirmed that officers were at Centennial Medical Center because they had information that a wanted fugitive was at the hospital. That fugitive was said to have dreadlocks, similar to Tessema.
Once the officers knew they had the wrong man, the take down took a different turn.
"They just kept apologizing and the police officer who busted my window said get an estimate, get your window tinted and call me tomorrow and give me the estimate," Tessema explained.
Metro Police said there will be an internal review of what happened Tuesday afternoon to make sure the officers involved followed department policy during this incident.
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