Wyclef Jean mistaken for petrol station thief

Image source, Getty Images

Musician Wyclef Jean has criticised police in Los Angeles for mistaking him for a man who robbed a nearby petrol station.

The Haitian rapper tweeted a video of himself standing next to a police car after being handcuffed.

He claimed the LAPD put him in the cuffs for "absolutely nothing" but the force has since tweeted to say it wasn't them.

In fact officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department were the ones who detained him.

Wyclef Jean is best known as one of the founding members of rap group Fugees and has worked with Shakira, Timbaland and Lil' Kim.

He says he was in the studio with the artist T-Baby when the petrol station robbery took place and claims he was only stopped by the police afterwards because he was a black man in a bandana, which matched the identity of the robber.

In the clip he says he is "coming from the studio with T-Baby, y'all see the police have handcuffs on me, they just took off my Haitian bandana".

Speaking to 大象传媒 Newsbeat a spokesperson from the LA County Sheriff's department said that Wyclef Jean "was in the passenger seat of a vehicle that matched the description of the car used in an earlier armed robbery."

The police say it was case of mistaken identity and the singer was released without charge.

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