Tupelo Police Advisory Board member speaks on Wells case

Wells was detained after police searched for shoplifting suspect

Member of the tupelo police advisory board says the situation with wesley wells at the barnes crossing mall in tupelo last tuesday should have been handled differently.

Wtva's wayne hereford talked to pastor ron richardson who said he thinks the police and wells both share some of the blame for what happened.

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Standup...'pastor ron richardson is a retired hospital chaplain at the north mississippi medical center.

He has been on the tupelo police advisory board for the past three years he says.

He had some very interesting things to say about the incident at the barnes crossing mall last tuesday involving wesley wells and tupelo police."

'whatever their good intentions were.

Whatever procedure they had been taught to take with this , it flew in the face of wesley wells."

Tupelo businessman wesley wells was handcuffed and placed in the back seat of a tupelo police patrol car when he was mistaken for a wanted shoplifter.

Pastor richardson said there are still some unanswered questions but he offered his view of what happened.

"he is a black man, and he was stopped by the police most likely put him on the defensive.

And that defensiveness spelled fear to me.

How he was going to be treated and how it was going to be like for him to have this interview with white police officers."

As for wells himself, richardson wished he had responded differently as well.

"i think what added insult to injury for wesley, was that he refused to give his name.

I wish that he had given his name in the very beginning."

"i wish that he had considered the fact that he was being stopped for a reason.

That he was not just being stopped to check him out."

Richardson says the incident is a sad one involving an innocent man.

He says police did not know him and he did have on a white t-shirt and hat with fit the description of the shoplifter .

He said it shows there is still work for the police advisory board and others to do in light of the situation.

" i just think that given the relationship between the black community and the white community and the police department, we need to do more than just sit back and sweep this under the rug and hope it will be forgotten about."

Standup...in tupelo wayne hereford wtva