BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Back on June 23rd, a Kern County Sheriff's Deputy pulled over a man who they believed to be a wanted suspect. The individual they pulled over was not who they were looking for. Now, that man is sharing his side of the story.
According to a release from the sheriff’s office, a deputy suspected Jasper Slack was a man they were looking for. They said his height and weight matched the suspect who was known to hang out in the area.
Plus, the sheriff's department considered this a high-risk traffic stop as the suspect, Andrew Ward, was wanted for attempted murder.
KCSO goes on to describe how they took Slack into custody by approaching his vehicle with their guns out. It is mentioned that Jasper did cooperate with deputies. It was then they found out he was not the wanted man.
"I feel like I barely made it out with my life and then my freedom. At first, I thought my life was on the line, and then when they told me what was happening I’m like 'you know what, they don’t even care that I'm me,' so now my freedom is on the line. So it's scary, you know. Maybe they’ve never been through that so they don’t understand. I know a lot of people here don’t understand and they never will because they really don’t care to."
Jasper says he understands he looks like the suspect but he does not agree with the protocol the sheriffs took.
WATCH JASPER SLACK'S FULL INTERVIEW WITH 23ABC:
23ABC did reach out to KCSO for an interview. We were told KCSO is conducting an internal review of the incident as they do when any member of the community has questions or is concerned about how the incident was handled. They would not be commenting at this time.
