A 20-year-old St-Constant man said police pointed guns at him and detained him for nine hours over a misunderstanding, a case he said was the result of racial profiling.

Malik Spaulding Smith said he got in his car and drove two streets away from the home to have a cigarette as his family was unaware he smoked. He stopped in front of a house and a resident exited, asking him why he was there and if he knew anybody who lived in the house.

Spaulding Smith said after he told the resident he didn’t know anyone in the home, the man wrote down his licence plate and went back inside. Spaulding Smith returned home and got ready for school. Upon exiting his home, he saw a dozen police cars and numerous officers, all with their weapons drawn.

“I was confused. I looked to my left and my right and they just yelled ‘freeze.’ When they yelled ‘freeze,’ that picture stays in my head, it’s all I think about,” he said. “They told me to advance and get on the ground and put my hands on my head. When they did that, I just got this feeling in my belly, I felt so sick. What is happening? Why am in the back of this squad car right now? What did I do to deserve this?”

While being held at the police station, Spaulding Smith said an officer told him he had been arrested for intimidation and possession of a weapon.

While he was being held, Spaulding Smith’s mother Suzette Spaulding said a large perimeter was erected around their house and they weren’t permitted to enter their own home and weren’t told what was happening.

"When I came home, the street was blocked off," she said. "I said 'Oh, what's going on?' I didn't have it in my mind it could be at my house."

According to Malik Spaulding Smith’s mother, the detective who brought her son home told her the arrest was a mistake.

The family has called the situation disappointing, saying they felt police had mishandled it and that the person who approached Spaulding-Smith had racially profiled him.

Roussillon police said on June 21, they received two 911 calls regarding gunshots and a suspect driving off, which is why, they say, they responded the way they did.

“When we get a call like that, regardless of race, it would have been treated the same,” said Michel Labelle of the Rousillon police.

Upon investigation, it was determined that what the callers had heard was a hydro breaker.

Police say they're sorry for the inconvenience it caused.

Spaulding Smith’s family, however, said the damage has been done.

Their home was sealed off while police searched for a weapon that never existed.

The whole experience has left him and his family traumatized and feeling, they say, racially profiled.

“My seven-year-old daughter is telling me ‘I don't like the police anymore.’ So I'm trying to explain to her not all police are bad,” said Suzette Spaulding.

The whole event hinges on the resident who called 911, said Fo Niemi, director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.

“There could be errors, but why zero-in on a black man in a car who looked possibly, in the eyes of the neighbour, suspicious or whatnot? So that depends a lot on the neighbour's account,” he explained.

Spaulding Smith said it has broken his trust in police and hopes one day he will be able to leave his house without being nervous.

“I haven't been sleeping well at night. Every time I walk out of my house, I have the image of it happening,” he said.