Former tennis star James Blake tackled by NYC police in case of mistaken identity

Retired tennis player James Blake wants an apology after New York City police used what he describes as excessive force on him in a case of mistaken identity on Wednesday.

The former fourth-ranked player in the world said he was glancing at his cellphone while waiting outside Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt New York hotel on his way to the U.S. Open. According to Blake, he looked up to find five plainclothes police officers rushing him.

One of the officers threw him to the ground and handcuffed him, Blake said.

Turns out Blake was misidentified by a witness as someone who fraudulently purchased a cellphone. He said he was detained for about 15 minutes before being recognized and let go.

“You’d think they could say, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something.’ I was just standing there. I wasn’t running,” Blake told the New York Daily News. “It’s not even close [to being OK]. It’s blatantly unnecessary. You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn’t OK, but it seems that there’s no stopping it.”

Blake said one of the officers apologized, but not the one who tackled him.

“I’d like an apology,” Blake said Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “I’d like an explanation for how they conducted themselves because I think we all need to be held accountable for our actions, and police as well.”

At a news briefing in New York on Thursday, police commissioner Bill Bratton said the officer involved in the incident had been put on desk duty pending an investigation. He described the action taken against Blake as “an inappropriate amount of force.”

“Mr. Blake was inappropriately arrested and detained,” Bratton said.

Police said six officers were present when the incident took place. All six were undercover detectives, not in uniform. Only one of them, though, has been put on desk duty and accused of unnecessary force. Bratton said the chief of the department’s internal affairs division recommended he be put on the desk duty after viewing video of what had happened. “I supported that recommendation. I am comfortable with it,” Bratton said.

He said the investigation was still in its early stages, but that based on his own viewing of the video, “I have concerns about the takedown.”

Bratton also said he has tried to apologize to Blake by phone but the retired player hasn’t responded to his messages. Bratton also would like Blake to speak to his department’s Internal Affairs division, which has opened a probe into the incident.

Earlier Thursday, on CNN, Bratton denied that race had anything to do with the incident.

“race has nothing at all to do with this. If you look at the photograph of the suspect, it looks like the twin brother of Mr. Blake,” he said.

Bratton said a witness at the Midtown Manhattan hotel where Blake was staying had pointed out the tennis player and identified him as someone who had used a false credit card to purchase a phone.

Blake told the Daily News: “To me it’s as simple as unnecessary police force, no matter what my race is. In my mind there’s probably a race factor involved, but no matter what, there’s no reason for anybody to do that to anybody.”

Times staff writer Tina Susman contributed to this report from New York.

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