Fury as photo of black man walking his dogs makes him burglary suspect

A San Diego man was left furious after police wrongly identified him as a person of interest in a neighborhood burglary last month.

Ike Iloputaife had taken his three-year-old Borzoi dogs, Lars and Luvkiy, for an early morning walk around Vista, where he lives, on May 16 – just seven hours before a home he’d walked past had been burgled, the LA Times reported.

Police issued a press release with pictures of the three suspects, and a ‘person of interest’. Iloputaife, 55, was stunned to see a picture of him on the release, listed as the ‘person of interest’. 

The suspects were all black males, and Iloputaife is also black. 

Ike Iloputaife (pictured) had taken his dogs for a walk around his neighborhood in Vista seven hours before a home he walked past was burgled. A neighbor had taken a photo of him, saying he was ‘a stranger in her street’ and sent it to police after the robbery

He was listed in the release as appearing ‘similar to Suspect 2 in the burglary’, even though Suspect two was described as being between 20 and 35, at least six feet tall and weighing 260 pounds.

Iloputaife said he had been vacationing in Yosemite when the picture was released days after the incident, and came back to hear the news from a neighbor. 

A woman who lived near the burgled home and sent the picture in told police she’d taken a photograph of the Nigerian-born man after he walked past her house because he was ‘a stranger on her street’.

The picture had been taken long before the robbery.

Iloputaife took to the Nextdoor app to share his frustration at what had happened. 

‘In this person’s head I became a person of interest because of my skin color,’ he wrote.

‘Asking to call the police on a black person in this highly charged political and cultural environment can be a danger for the black person.’

Iloputaife’s friend said watching he and his partner Jim Watson deal with the incident, for which he says he’s received no apology, has been difficult.

 Laurie Gilbert said both men were ‘good, kind, loving people’ without a bad bone in their bodies.  

‘To suddenly feel unwelcome and afraid to go out and walk your dogs is awful,’ she said.

 The photograph has been removed from the press release at Iloputaife’s request, and he has contacted various media outlets about retracting it. 

As a result, As a result, 

As a result, Iloputaife was listed a a person of interest because he looked similar to Suspect 2 – though their only physical similarity was the color of their skin



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