Black doctor handcuffed outside Miami home while helping homeless during coronavirus pandemic

‘It was really humiliating’

A Black Miami doctor, who has been helping the homeless amid the coronavirus pandemic, was handcuffed outside his home last week.

Dr Armen Henderson, an internal medicine physician at the University of Miami Health System, was leaving his home last week to give homeless people camping tents, to help keep them safe during the pandemic.

While he was putting the tents into the back of his van, a police officer stopped him and asked if he was littering.

Dr Henderson told the officer what he was doing and said that he lived at the property, but soon after he was in handcuffs.

“At some point, he got upset with what I was saying and he handcuffed me,” Dr Henderson told NBC.

The police officer only released him from the handcuffs, when Dr Henderson’s wife, Leyla Hussein, brought out identification for both of them, to prove they lived there.

Dr Henderson said the ordeal “was really humiliating.”

Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina, said last week that “the City of Miami Police Department does not condone or accept profiling of any kind.”

Eldys Diaz, executive officer to Mr Colina, said that the department takes racial profiling cases seriously.

“The Miami Police Department takes all reports of police misconduct seriously and is particularly sensitive to allegations of racial profiling and abuse of authority,” said Mr Diaz.

“If the investigation concludes that the involved employee violated Miami Police Department policies, he will be disciplined for each sustained violation in accordance with established agency procedures.”

Google’s dedicated coronavirus page shows that Florida has upwards of 22,897 confirmed cases and at least 633 deaths.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, nationally there are upwards of 671,493 people who have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 33,288.