Man Who Called Police After His Store Was Robbed Is Mistaken By Them To Be Robber, Gets Punched By Cop

A black business owner armed with a gun was mistaken for a robbery suspect when a police officer punched him in the face, Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen said today.

The situation happened nearly three months ago on March 15 but has become public now because of a surveillance video clip released on social media over the weekend. The video shows a police officer walk into Star Spirits & Beverages, a liquor store on Sixth Aven

Penn says he called police that day to report his store had been robbed and that he was holding the suspect at gunpoint.

Allen said because police were called to investigate a robbery and Penn was armed, they believed he might have been the suspect.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Decatur police played body camera video, in which an officer can be heard telling Penn to put down his gun and Penn refusing to do so.

Police did not release copies of the footage but let news reporters watch and record a screen on which the footage was aired. The footage, which was edited with captions and delayed at some points, doesn’t appear to clearly show what happened.ue in Decatur in north Alabama, and immediately punch the owner, 47-year-old Kevin Penn.

In court records obtained by AL.com, Decatur police Officer J. Rippen wrote that Penn “refused to obey lawful commands to put down and back away from a firearm while officers were attempting to investigate a robbery.”