MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/CNN) – A pastor of a storefront church is under arrest after impersonating a police officer and using pepper spray on a teenager.
Keith Haskell saw the teenage boy shoplift $10 worth of snacks from a grocery store, and tailed him and his cousin to their neighborhood.
Abraam Rodriguez, 17, admits his cousin shoplifted but said he was alarmed with how quickly the situation escalated.
Rodriguez said Haskell blocked their car in so the two couldn’t leave in their neighborhood, and was armed with a baton and pepper spray.
"He's like, put your hands up, put your hands up, I'm a cop. I need you to get out the vehicle or whatever,” Rodriguez said.
In the court documents, witnesses living nearby told officers that Haskell was trying to pull the teenagers out of the SUV and said out loud that he was an officer.
When Rodriguez's cousin stepped out - things turned physical.
"The most vivid memory would be him pepper spraying my cousin because that just wasn't called for at all," Rodriguez said
Haskell, who is a pastor at Bridges of Hope Community Church, told officers at the scene he used the pepper spray in self-defense.
He also admitted he was holding a baton.
"I was actually pretty scared because if he was a cop and you see all those videos of like cops, police brutality and stuff," Rodriguez said.
Haskell's attorney released a statement: “The police investigation is absurd and flawed. My client was the victim. We will fight these allegations in the courts."
Even though Rodriguez's cousin did commit a crime, he wishes the actual police would have caught them - not Haskell.
"If he would have called the cops it would have been better, like if he would have just called them, they would have come and talked to us. It would have been a way better situation," Rodriguez said.
Copyright 2017 Steel Co. Sheriff’s Office, WCCO via CNN. All rights reserved.
