LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department issued a statement apologizing for wrongfully detaining Wyclef Jean, but the iconic rapper is not satisfied.
In video shared with TMZ, Jean claims that authorities are lying in their account of the incident where he was pulled over and handcuffed for appearing to match the description of an armed robbery suspect.
He says that the officers confronted him as soon as he left his car, leaving him no time to ask to get things from his trunk or reach for his waistband like their account says. He is adamant that he is not trying to bash the officers who were doing their job, but wants the officials to have their facts straight before portraying him as the threatening one.
“This bothers me because in the case of law and in the case of how many kids are prosecuted and how many people are killed,” he explains, “this bothers me because this is what you call tampering of information and not giving the truth.”

(This article was first published today [March 22, 2017] at 10:36 a.m. PST and is as follows.)
Wyclef Jean was wrongfully detained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department yesterday (March 21) after authorities pulled over the Fugees rapper when they thought he matched the identity of an armed robbery suspect.
LASD issued an apology for the matter, writing a lengthy Facebook post about the incident.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Jean was detained for six minutes during this investigation, as he had no involvement whatsoever in this violent crime,” the law enforcement agency writes. “However, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs are frequently required to make lawful detentions, under the strict parameters provided by law, in the interest of catching often dangerous and armed suspects in our communities and keeping the public safe. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is apologetic for any inconvenience this process caused Mr. Jean. We are grateful we were able to apprehend the robbery suspects and that no one was seriously injured.”
The statement also goes into detail as to how the events developed, noting multiple times that Jean was held for strictly six minutes, was given a pat down “out of an abundance of caution” and was placed in handcuffs “due to the violent nature of the call (armed robbery), the similarity of the suspect vehicle to Mr. Jean’s vehicle, the time of day of the unfolding detention and Mr. Jean’s furtive movements and demeanor.”
After he was let go, Jean railed against the Los Angeles Police Department, but the LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that it had nothing to do with the incident.
The LASD said that the Haitian artist had not reached out to them at the time of publication.
“Since this writing, neither Mr. Jean nor his representatives have personally contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the actual agency whose deputies reasonably and lawfully detained him,” the statement said.