Houston Police have refused to explain why they took a 13-year-old white girl from her two black guardians over the weekend and placed her in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Landry Thompson’s mother had signed notarized papers giving dance instructor Emmanuel Hurd full guardianship over her during a trip from Oklahoma to Houston for training, according to KHOU.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thompson, Hurd and another dance instructor had stopped at a gas station in Houston on Saturday night when they were surrounded by police cars.

Thompson is a 13-year-old blonde white girl and both dance instructors are young African-American men.

“We were on the GPS trying to figure out where the hotel was,” Hurd recalled. “They just pulled us out of the car and put our hands behind our backs like we were criminals.”

“The officer asked me ‘who’s the girl?’ and I said ‘she’s my student,'” Hurd continued. “I told him I had a notarized letter from her parents stating that we have full guardianship over her while we’re here.”

All three told the police the same story, but the officers apparently weren’t buying it.

ADVERTISEMENT

“They still put handcuffs on me and it really scared me,” the 13-year-old said. “And they put me in the back of a cop car and I was terrified.”

Thompson’s mother, Destiny, was shocked when she found out that her daughter had been placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

“She was with the people I wanted her to be with,” the mother remarked. “She was with people I trusted. And now she was taken away from those people and in a shelter with people I didn’t know.”

ADVERTISEMENT

At first officials reportedly demanded that the mother fly to Houston to get her daughter, but 11 hours later, the girl was released back into the custody of Hurd.

Destiny Thompson insisted that the police owed her and her daughter an apology. However, the department refused to comment for KHOU’s report.

ADVERTISEMENT

Watch this video from KHOU, broadcast Dec. 2, 2013.

(h/t: Egberto Willies)