Sprinter accuses police of racial profiling after frightening confrontation

Bianca Williams is “heartbroken” after the gold medal-winning sprinter and her partner endured a scary confrontation with police.

British sprinter Bianca Williams says she is considering legal action against the police after accusing officers of racially profiling her and her partner in a stop-and-search operation in London.

The European and Commonwealth 100m relay gold medallist also rejected the police force’s account their car had been driving on the wrong side of the road on the weekend.

“They (the officers) said there’s a lot of youth violence and stabbings in the area and that the car looked very suspicious,” Williams told BBC radio.

“They see a black male driving a nice car, an all-black car, and they assume that he was involved in some sort of gang, drug, violence problem.

“That is false. We were never on the wrong side of the road. We were driving down through single-width roads.”

Williams, 26, said her partner, Portuguese sprinter Ricardo dos Santos, had been stopped by police about 10 times, pinning the blame on racism. Their three-month-old son was also in the car.

“We are planning on taking it down the legal route,” she said. “I feel very hurt by their actions … It’s an awful experience.”

Footage of the incident was shared widely on Twitter after being posted by their coach, Britain’s former Olympic champion Linford Christie.

The video was captioned: “Racist police aren’t just in America”.

Bianca Williams was disgusted by her treatment. Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.

Williams called racial profiling by police “disgusting” said she hasn’t “been able to watch the video back because it just breaks my heart hearing my voice and how upset I was”.

“I’m still upset and I’m still heartbroken that they removed me from my three-month-old baby who has no idea of what’s going on,” she told Sky.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that if it’s not us, it’s going to be somebody else.”

On Twitter, British TV host Piers Morgan wrote: “This video is a disgrace & EXACTLY the kind of racial injustice that people have been protesting about.”

The Metropolitan Police said staff had reviewed footage from social media and officers’ bodycams and were satisfied there was no concern around the conduct of the police officers.

The force said in a statement a car was stopped on Saturday afternoon after it was seen driving suspiciously, and a 25-year-old man and 26-year-old woman had been searched.

“I understand the concern when incidents like this happen and how they can appear when part of it is filmed without context,” said Met commander for central west London Helen Harper.

“Due to the concern raised, we conducted a review of the stop. This included social media footage and body-worn camera footage of the officers at the scene.

“We are satisfied that there are no misconduct issues.”