"I overreacted."
Empire star Taraji P. Henson is apologizing to police, saying she "overreacted" when she claimed her son had been racially profiled.
In a recent magazine interview, the star of TV's hottest show claimed her son was hassled by cops in Glendale, California, during this traffic stop.
Taraji told the magazine, "He did exactly everything the cops told him to do including illegally search his car. I said, 'Why did you do that?' he said, 'Mom, I figured if I let them just do whatever, they wouldn't have an excuse to beat me up.' My son has to walk around with that on his shoulders."
But police countered by releasing dashcam video of the stop.
The video shows her 20-year-old son, Marcell was pulled over when cops observed him failing to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
The officer said, "I want you to be completely honest with me. Is there anything illegal in the car I should know about now?"
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When Marcell admitted he has some weed, but couldn't find his medical marijuana ID card that gives him permission to use marijuana, the officer said, "Ok. I appreciate you being honest with me about the weed. I do appreciate that, because I do smell weed, so thank you for being honest about that, all right?"
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And after he searched the young man's car, the police officer even gave him a break.
"I'm not going to give you a citation for running that yellow because that will actually put a moving violation on your drivers' licence," said the officer.
Taraji created a social media firestorm with her claims that her son was racially profiled, but after watching the video she is apologizing.
The actress stated, "I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the glendale police department. A mother's job is not easy and neither is a police officer's. Sometimes as humans we over react. As a mother in this case I over reacted and for that I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son."
Reaction is mixed.
"An apology on Instagram is kind of a cop out" said one tweet.
"She thinks she's a saint," said another.
But there was also admiration for Taraji for admitting she was wrong.
"I commend her for her bravery for admitting she was at fault!" said one fan.
