BALTIMORE — Baltimore County Police are defending their actions after temporarily detaining a Kenwood High School student on-campus last week.
On Monday evening officers rushed to the scene with guns drawn after receiving an Omnialert, indicating someone outside the school was armed with a gun.
The Omnialert is an AI based safety detection system used by the school, which in this case mistakenly took a chips bag for a gun.
Over the weekend, police released body-worn camera footage of the entire incident.
As police swarm the area, they order a few individuals to the ground.
One of them was 16-year-old Taki Allen, who WMAR-2 News spoke with afterwards.
Video shows officers handcuffing Allen and searching him.
Once they realize he's not armed, police removed the handcuffs and explain what happened, while also thanking Allen for cooperating.
Officers then allow Allen to see a picture of the alert, depicting a crumpled up bag of chips that resembled a gun.
While huddled together assessing the picture, multiple officers conclude the picture looks more like a bag rather than a weapon.
"The officers responded appropriately and proportionally based on the information provided at the time," Baltimore County Police said in a statement. "The incident was safely resolved after it was determined there was no threat."
Allen told us he was outside the school after-hours because he'd just finished football practice and was awaiting a ride home.
Despite the controversial fallout, Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said the system worked how it was meant to.
"The program is based on human verification and in this case the program did what it was supposed to do which was to signal an alert and for humans to take a look to find out if there was cause for concern in that moment," Rogers said.
For Allen, however, he remains on guard after a dangerously close call.
"Now, I feel like sometimes after practice I don't go outside anymore. Cause if I go outside, I don't want - don't think I'm safe enough to go outside, especially eating a bag of chips or drinking something. I just stay inside until my ride comes," said Allen.
