Pulp Fiction and Mission: Impossible actor Ving Rhames is used to having the barrel of a gun pointed at him on the set of his films. But he is still traumatized today because it actually happened to the celebrated thespian in real life — and, worst of all, in his own home recently.
Rhames, 59, was held at gunpoint by police officers at his front door after a neighbor reported that a “large Black man” had broken in, the actor revealed to the media.
According to Rhames himself, as “Good Morning America” shared, he was alone and dressed in shorts when, out of nowhere, his doorbell rang.
“I open the door and there is a red dot pointed at my face from a 9mm [handgun],” the star best known for his role in Baby Boy said on the Clay Cane show on Sirius XM. “They say, ‘Put up your hands’.”
Rhames said the confrontation happened earlier this year. He said the potentially deadly episode deescalated quickly when the police chief recognized him.
“He said it was a mistake and apologized,” Rhames said, adding that he is still shaken, not just because of having a gun in his face, but because of what could have happened if one of his two children had opened the door.
“My problem is, and I said this to them, what if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?”
Rhames said police told him a neighbor had called 911 and said a large Black man was breaking into the house.
“Myself, the sergeant and one other officer, we went over to that house, which was across the street from my place, and the person denied it,” Rhames said.
He continued: “Here I am in my own home, alone in some basketball shorts. Just because someone called and said a large Black man is breaking in, when I opened up the wooden door a 9mm is pointed at me.”
Santa Monica police confirmed that they went to his home and that a neighbor did call police on Rhames. But they refuse to confirm whether or not its officers pointed guns at Rhames’ head.
Rhames probably would not have brought up the matter at all. But he just happened to be asked a question about his experiences with racism.
“I’m sure you hear about all the reports of Black men being attacked by police,” Cane said. “You are a big star, but how does racism show itself in your life?”
Rhames’ story is a jolting reminder of the score of high-profile episodes in which Blacks have had the police called on them for trivial activities like having barbecues, sitting in a Starbucks, working out in a gym and selling hot dogs and bottles of water.
This episode of a prominent Black man being traumatized in his own home is also very similar to what happened to Henry “Skip” Gates in suburban Boston in 2009 when the Harvard professor was detained outside his own home after entering the front door.
