McKinney councilman who alleged racial profiling apologizes, joins colleagues in approving reprimand

McKINNEY — Some have said he's the face of a race problem in McKinney. Others have demanded he apologize, or even resign. After two weeks of turmoil over a traffic stop involving a black City Council member, city leaders and residents arrived at this moment.

The McKinney City Council voted 6-0 Wednesday evening to approve a resolution "expressing disapproval" of actions by council member La'Shadion Shemwell related to a May 8 traffic stop in which he accused a white police officer of committing racial profiling in stopping him over an alleged speeding violation.

After apologizing to the city and police, Shemwell brought forward a motion to censure himself. He was joined in approving the motion by all council members but Charlie Philips, who abstained.

"If anybody's going to hold me accountable, I need to hold myself accountable," Shemwell said after the meeting. "I didn't want to put my own council members in a position to pin themselves against me."

Mayor George Fuller said the council vote was a difficult move that "no one likes" but was necessary for the city to move forward.

"We do need to get past it, but you need to get past it from a point of truth," he said in a phone interview before the meeting. "It did happen. We need to deal with it. People have to own it, and then we move forward."

Fuller said the censure is only a reprimand, adding that it does not remove Shemwell from office and there is no additional punishment.

The resolution states that elected city officials must demonstrate "respect and integrity." During the traffic stop, it reads, Shemwell was "uncooperative and argumentative" toward the police officer. It goes on to say his statements and actions "demonstrated a lack of judgment and professionalism."

Shemwell said he did not mean to condemn the police department and apologized for the "drama" that led to Wednesday night's censure.

"I did not want to have that conversation about racial profiling on a case that involved me. But I'm not going to shy away from having those conversations," he said.

The traffic stop

Shemwell was pulled over by McKinney police Officer K. Wilkerson, who stated he had clocked the council member — a barber by trade and only the second African-American elected official in city history — driving 55 mph on a 35-mph stretch of North McDonald Street. He also cited Shemwell for having an outdated address on his driver's license.

After Shemwell repeatedly refused to sign the citations, Wilkerson arrested him, police said. The council member posted bond and was released from jail that night.

Soon after the arrest, Shemwell accused Wilkerson of pulling him over for "being black with dreadlocks."

After reviewing body camera footage of the stop, Shemwell acknowledged that he had been argumentative and abrasive and could have better handled the exchange. Later, though, he stated that he hadn't backpedaled from his initial accusation of having been racially profiled.

He reiterated in a Facebook Live video that he felt the traffic stop was racially motivated and that he'd been unlawfully detained and arrested. He said he would not resign.

A week ago, residents packed McKinney's City Council meeting, some toting red "Shame on Shemwell" stickers and others saying the city has a race problem that can no longer be ignored.

A chance to heal

Wednesday night's vote wasn't just a day of reckoning for Shemwell. It was a moment that city and community leaders had been moving toward in an effort to heal the community.

Shemwell's arrest and allegations of racial profiling have stirred a variety of opinions in the northern Collin County suburb, bringing to a head a debate about whether this was a case of police mistreatment of minorities or simply council member misconduct.

It's a complicated scenario. And for some, the answers are murky.

"Any time you have a situation like this, the different parties who are involved all see things through their own lenses, and that means issues are brought to the table that weren't necessarily part of the initial incident," said John Mott, a longtime McKinney resident and friend of Shemwell's who has been counseling him. "But that just means we have an opportunity to talk about those things."

Pastor Chris Thornton, a friend of Shemwell's, said as a black man he understands Shemwell's perspective and that people sometimes are quick to call an incident a case of racial profiling "simply because of all the things that have happened in the past."

"To be quick to jump to those conclusions, it hurts us more than it helps us," he said.

'A loving son,' mother says

Rolanda Mocharia, Shemwell's mom, said she has kept quiet while she has read some of the "meanest and most notorious hateful" comments online aimed at her son and his past.

"But today I speak. I speak because I intimately know him as a loving son, a loving father and a loving brother," she said. "I speak because he has made mistakes, and I have watched him overcome them against all odds."

...

2 images

View Gallery

Pastor Leroy Armstrong of First Baptist Church in McKinney, said the censure was not an attempt to "crucify" Shemwell, adding that he felt the councilman had shown maturity and growth by bringing the motion for a vote on his own reprimand.

"There are issues here that could not be overlooked by anyone, regardless of whether or not that person is an elected official," said Armstrong, who is part of the community advisory council for the McKinney police chief.

Shemwell reiterated that he is not against the police but against police brutality. But he said there are improvements to be made in policing practices.

"There have been some strides that the McKinney Police Department has taken to bridge that gap, but the gap has still not been bridged," he said."If we're going to bridge that gap, we're going to have to have these uncomfortable conversations."

Others, however, see things more definitively.

'Owning his actions'

In an interview before Wednesday's meeting, Fuller said that the events in recent weeks had been manipulated into a springboard for a larger social discussion in the absence of actual evidence of racial profiling.

He called events laced with allegations of racial motivations "a match to gasoline." And he said Shemwell's actions had broken the trust of council members and the Police Department.

"The fact that we had that when it didn't exist or there's no proof of it, that's adding fuel to a fire ... that wasn't burning in this case," he said.

After the meeting, the mayor agreed with Shemwell that dialogue about race is much-needed.

"A discussion on racial divide, racial anything is a discussion that should always be had and should always be an open dialogue across the country," Fuller said.

"That said, tonight was a night where we really needed to hear and what the community really needed to hear was La'Shadion owning his actions."