Zealous military police acting on a tip that a family of U.S. Air Force museum-goers — complete with a grandmother and a 5-year-old girl — were in the throes of burglarizing cars, pointed guns first and asked questions second.
They sidled up to the family’s car, guns drawn, yanked out the grandmother-aged Alice Hill and cuffed her.
Turns out, the family was simply visiting the Ohio Air Force museum to see the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force’s display of a Wright brothers’ airplane.
But somebody called 911 on them as they played a game to amuse the younger family members in the parking lot — pointing out out-of-state license plates and identifying where the cars were from, the local WKRC-TV reported.
“He’s very excited,” recounted Ms. Hill, about her grandson Aaron and the game they played in the parking lot, The Blaze reported. “[We’re saying] ’Look at where all of these people have come from. They’re from Alaska, from New Mexico, they’re from Georgia.’”
But the family’s trip turned chaotic when they tried to leave the museum in their car.
“I’m looking in my side view mirror, and I see [an officer] step out of his vehicle,” Ms. Hill told WKRC-TV. “[He’s] behind his door with his gun drawn pointing it at me.” She then said she was taken from the car and handcuffed.
“My grandchildren are screaming,” she said in the report. “I mean they are hysterical. They saw the gun.”
Daughter-in-law Wendy Hill chimed in: “My 5-year-old daughter is asked, ’Is Grandma going to get shot?’ “
The family has now demanded the police force account for what they say is an overly aggressive response to an unfounded tip, The Blaze reported.
MP spokeswoman Cassie Barlow, meanwhile, agreed that officers had acted on “limited” information.
“Our security force, based on limited information, made a high-risk traffic stop and believed that this vehicle was stolen based on the information they received,” Ms. Barlow, the 88th Airbase Wing Commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, told the local media outlet. “All we can do at this point is offer our apology to the Hills. And we’ve invited them to come out to the base and meet the security forces.”
But Wendy Hill said that offer doesn’t suffice.
“My son doesn’t trust police officers now,” she said, WKRC-TV reported. “He views them as the bad guy.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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