Belton couple held at gunpoint by Raymore police after car was mistakenly labeled stolen
An elderly couple were mistakenly pulled over and held at gunpoint by Raymore police when they were taking their son’s truck to run errands and update its registration.
Video of the incident, recorded by the passenger Jewel Wilson, went viral after her granddaughter posted it on TikTok.
Joshua Wilson, the couple’s son, said he lent the office truck to one of his employees, who took it to a Fourth of July party. The employee reported the vehicle stolen July 3 in Raytown after he wasn’t able to find it the next morning. A few days later, the truck was found and returned to the employee.
The truck hadn’t been removed from the stolen vehicle registry because it was recovered around 5:30 a.m. on July 5, when the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office takes over coverage for the department to help with staffing shortages, said Mallory Harrison, a spokeswoman with the Raytown Police Department.
There was a miscommunication during the shift change between the sheriff’s office and Raytown police, and the vehicle was not removed from the registry, Harrison said.
But the Wilsons didn’t know that the truck was never removed from the stolen vehicle registry.
John and Jewel Wilson of Belton took their son’s car to get new registration and run some errands on Aug. 18. They were returning when about nine or 10 police officers pulled the vehicle over.
Seeing some of the officers pull out their guns, John Wilson, 73, told his wife to call their son Joshua, an attorney in the area. Officers told John Wilson to leave the truck. He had difficulty following their directions to open the car door with his right hand and walk backwards because of several surgeries on his knee and back, he said.
Jewel Wilson, 71, who was still in the passenger seat, pulled out her phone and recorded the incident. When she did, she said she realized at least three guns were pointed toward her head. Her husband had been separated from her and was being held near the police car.
“A fear fell on me like I’ve never felt before,” Jewel Wilson said, “and I prayed.”
She stopped recording and called her son when she heard the officers shouting at her.
Joshua Wilson said he talked to the officer on the phone and told him information to confirm his identity and the car’s ownership. At the same time, he was talking to Raytown police, who were trying to find the police report regarding the stolen vehicle but faced difficulties because he hadn’t made the report and didn’t know the number.
When he made his way to the scene, Joshua Wilson said the Raymore officer told him not to come. A dispatcher with Raytown stayed on the line the whole time, he said.
Joshua Wilson said he showed the Raymore officers his ID and registration – everything they would need to confirm he owned the vehicle. Officers refused to let his parents leave until the vehicle had been removed from the stolen vehicle registry, he said.
Harrison, the Raytown police spokeswoman, said once the department found the report and confirmed Joshua Wilson was the vehicle owner, they removed the truck from the stolen vehicle database so that Raymore police could let the couple go.
Joshua Wilson said he believes his parents were unlawfully detained as they felt they couldn’t move from the scene even though Joshua Wilson felt there was no reasonable suspicion that his parents had stolen the truck.
Eventually, the situation was resolved, and the Wilsons were allowed to leave the scene.
The Raymore Police Department and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Raytown police chief found Joshua Wilson’s number and called him to apologize a few days later – before the story captured the attention of social media.
From there, the chief went to his parents’ home to personally apologize for the issue and gave his cellphone number to the family. When a news story about the incident aired a few weeks later, the police chief called again to ask how the family was doing, Joshua Wilson said.
Raymore police haven’t done the same.
After the story aired on television this week, John Wilson said he had a missed call from the police department, but he ran into an automated system when he tried to call back. As far as they know, no other attempts were made by the department to get in touch.
The Wilsons want to hear from the department and understand why the situation required guns or for John and Jewel to be separated.
Joshua Wilson said he also didn’t understand why the couple had to be separated. At one point, he said an officer came to his father and told him his wife was distraught. The comment left John Wilson worried for his wife and upset that he couldn’t help her at that moment, Joshua Wilson said.
Jewel Wilson said cops told them at the scene that they followed protocol in the situation. She hopes the police receive more training and learn to handle incidents with discretion because she and her husband, a disabled man, likely posed little threat to the officers, she said.
The Wilsons also said they understand the situation could have ended far worse. If the couple weren’t white or hadn’t followed the officers’ instructions exactly, Jewel Wilson believes they may have been killed.
The family hopes they’ll hear an apology from the Raymore police, but Joshua Wilson said that, while Raytown’s apology felt sincere, no response from Raymore would.
“Any apology is going to be half-hearted,” he said, “if it happens at all.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 3:36 PM.
