Texas councilman arrested for refusing to sign citation flips again; says he was racially profiled

The Texas councilman who accused an officer of racial profiling him but later walked back his claims has, once again, reversed his stance.

Initially, La’Shadion Shemwell said the officer racially profiled him during a traffic stop for allegedly speeding in McKinney, Texas, Tuesday, but after he watched the bodycam video, he walked back his accusations and even admitted he was "abrasive" and "argumentative" with the cop.

On Thursday, the 31-year-old councilman took to Facebook Live where he again accused McKinney police Officer K. Wilkerson of pulling him over because he's a black man.

What did the bodycam video reveal?

The officer, who appeared to remain calm throughout the encounter, told Shemwell he was stopped for driving 55 mph in a 35-mph zone.

Wilkerson warned Shemwell he would go to jail if he refused to sign the ticket, which isn't an admission of guilt.

"You're going to be in really big trouble," Shemwell said repeatedly.

What did he say in the Facebook video?

For more than 12 minutes, Shemwell went on about how he wasn't driving 20 mph over the speed limit, and there's no way to prove that he was.

"I know I was not speeding," he said.

The councilman said he faces racism every day of his life and knows Wilkerson pulled him over because he's black and that he had "a right to be frustrated" for "being unlawfully detained."

"I felt like I was targeted," Shemwell said.

Some have accused Shemwell of "playing the race card," but he denied it, citing it as "being black in America."

But Shemwell claims black people are twice as likely as whites to be pulled over in McKinney.

"I'm not anti-police. I'm only anti-police brutality," he said.

Every time he travels, he said he's bomb searched, strip searched, and police search the plane using dogs.

"This happens to me every time that I travel," Shemwell said.

He believes he's done a "tremendous job" in his 11 months on the job and has no intentions of resigning over the incident.

"I'm a councilmember who leads with high integrity and shoulders the responsibility of building bridges in our community," he said.



What did his statement say?

Following his Facebook video, Shemwell's lawyer, Kim T. Cole, posted a statement alleging that her client's "stop and his subsequent arrest were racially motivated."

The statement references five other arrests involving her client alleges were all based on Shemwell's skin color, including an incident where was arrested while protesting at a Trump rally in 2016.

Shemwell believes race-based policing is a problem in McKinney and that the city officials have declined to meet with him to address the issue.

"However, with having one of their own black elected officials targeted, we sincerely hope that the city of McKinney will reconsider," the statement said. "Race-based policing is a serious matter which must and should be addressed. Especially if the lives of McKinney’s minorities matter at all to its lawmakers."