Middletown Police React To Video Circulating On Social Media

MIDDLETOWN, NY — City of Middletown police took to social media to explain the circumstances surrounding a video of two young black men who were ordered at gunpoint out of a car by police Wednesday. The video was circulating on social media.

Police said the incident was part of an investigation of a shooting early Wednesday morning.

The video, which might be disturbing to some, can be viewed here.

The City of Middletown Police Department said, in a statement posted on Facebook, that officers responded to the area of Smith Street for a report of shots fired shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The 18-year-old Hispanic man was found with the gunshot wound to his arm on North Street. He was treated at the scene and taken to Orange Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and ultimately released.

Police said that eyewitnesses, as well as their investigation, led them to look for two black men who left the scene in a black Honda SUV with Pennsylvania plates.

Officers located the vehicle seen in the video parked at the Eagle Point Condominiums on Ruth Court around 4 a.m.

The two occupants of the SUV were ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint, police said, but it was determined they were not involved in the shooting. The officers apologized and let the men go.

"Please understand that this shooting was an extremely dangerous incident, which puts our residents and officers in grave danger," the statement said. "The officers drew their firearms in anticipation of the vehicle occupants possibly being armed, and removed the subjects from the vehicle until such time that it was determined that they were not involved."

The department's statement said that it was "very unfortunate that we did not have the correct vehicle or occupants, but our officers were acting in good faith, in an effort to make our community safer by apprehending dangerous perpetrators."