Jay Pharoah Recounts Police Detaining Him and Kneeling on His Neck

In a video posted to his Instagram account, comedian, actor, and Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah recounted a terrifying experience he recently had with the LAPD. 

As he was exercising in Tarzana around Ventura Boulevard and Corbin Avenue back in April, Pharoah said that multiple police officers pulled up near him with guns drawn to detain him. “I see an officer to the left of me. I’m not thinking anything of it because I’m a law-abiding citizen,” the 32-year-old said. “I see ’em say, ‘Get on the ground, put your hands up like you’re an airplane.’ I said, ‘Why are you doing this, like what’s wrong.’ They said, ‘You fit the description of a black man in this area with gray sweatpants on and a gray shirt.'”

Pharoah added, “They put me in cuffs. The officer took his knee, put it on my neck. It wasn’t as long as George Floyd, but I know how that feels. They come back, they say, ‘We’re sorry, we just got a call in that it’s not you.'”

The video Pharoah posted begins with a clip of Martin Luther King Jr. reciting his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “I am a Black man in America, proud to be but this is AMERICA,” Pharoah captioned the post, which also features security camera footage of his run-in with the police. “I’m still here to tell my story but I could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd,” Pharoah said towards the end of the clip.