The New York City Police Department finally issued a formal apology to a 16-year-old Black boy wrongfully accused of a heinous crime. But even with the record being set straight months after the traumatic event, Camden Lee is still dealing with the emotional consequences of the careless mistake.
It all started when Lee and one of his teammates decided to go to a Brooklyn Labor Day parade after football practice. Almost minutes after the pair arrived at the September 2024 celebration, gunshots rang out, killing 25-year-old Denzel Chan and injuring four others, including Lee’s teammate, according to CBS News.
Three weeks after the fatal attack, no suspects had been officially named, but one social media post would change Lee’s life as he knew it. On X, the NYPD posted an image taken from surveillance footage of the then-15-year-old wearing a hoodie and shorts, according to NBC New York.
“The pictured individual,” police confidently declared, was wanted for “discharg[ing] a firearm” and committing the mass shooting. Lee, who was leaving football practice one day, saw his picture posted by the NYPD and was beyond confused.
“I see the NYPD logo. I see me. I see ‘suspect wanted for murder,’” the high school sophomore told NBC New York. “I couldn’t believe what was happening. Then everything went blurry.”
After contacting police and speaking with Kenneth Montgomery, the family’s lawyer, it was almost immediately clear that the cops were blaming the wrong guy. “They conceded they got it wrong,” Montgomery said, according to ABC News. “But these officers were so cavalier about it. It was like they were playing a game with a kid’s life.”
After the reckless mistake was revealed, Lee’s “WANTED” post was quickly taken down from NYPD social media but it would take months before Lee and his family got the apology they deserved. “I used to have a lot of trust in the NYPD and how they do things,” said Lee’s mother, Chee Chee Brock, told ABC. “But I raised my kids to admit when they made a mistake. If you can blame an innocent kid for murder, what else can you get away with?”
Even after the post was removed, the teen’s picture was still circulating local news outlets. He even began receiving death threats, which expectedly took a toll. “It takes me to a dark place,” Lee told AP News. “I don’t feel like myself anymore. I don’t have the opportunity to explain my side of the story. Everyone is so fixed on this one image of me: murderer.”
On Sunday (Feb. 9), almost five months after Lee was falsely accused, the NYPD sent out a statement confirming they “mistakenly stated that he [Lee] was wanted for the fatal shooting,” according to the AP. “The NYPD should have immediately corrected this misstatement,” the department’s chief spokesperson, Delaney Kempner, said. “We apologize for the error and will continue to seek justice for the victims of this shooting.”
Lee’s mother called the statement a “superficial apology” asking why it wasn’t released earlier. “This could’ve been done in September after we had the meeting,” Brock said, according to Fox 5. “They don’t understand the damage that it caused.”