Black youth coach says he was pulled out of bed half naked in wrongful arrest

A Black man who coaches basketball, soccer, cheer, and more at a youth academy says he was awoken by police and forced out of his bed while almost nude, after the police purportedly went into the wrong residence following a burglary call.

Derrick Cooper, who runs the L.A. City Wildcats youth academy facility, was wrongfully detained on April 18, when he awoke at 4:00 A.M. to deputies standing above his bed with guns drawn, according to his account, reported by NBC News. The outlet further reported that Cooper wasn't allowed to put on his clothes before being escorted out, and that the police let him go after confirming that he wasn't the burglary suspect they were called about.

"Derrick Cooper, 54, said when he was wrongfully detained on April 18, he felt 'less than human' and 'humiliated,'" the agency reported.

“I was not valued as a human being,” he told NBC News on Tuesday. “To just come in and blatantly take me out of my safe place and put me in a place that I’m helpless and afraid for my life. It’s one of the worst things imaginable.”

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Cooper added that he was embarrassed and wasn't allowed to pick up his clothes to cover himself up.

"The deputies ordered him to stand up and walk towards them, and he told them he’d comply but he was naked from the waist down," NBC reported. "He asked to put on underwear or pants but was told he could not."

“As much as I wanted to reach for something to cover up, I just knew if I did that, it was not going to be good for me. So as embarrassed as I was, I chose being embarrassed to live another day,” he explained to NBC.

For its part, the Los Angeles Police Department has said that deputies were dispatched near the L.A. City Wildcats facility for an attempted burglary, but that they entered the wrong building and detained Cooper, whose apartment shares a building with the youth facility.