Ahmed Mohamed, a ninth grader at the Irving MacArthur High School, wanted to impress his teachers by showing them his own self-built electronic clock. However, the attempt to get noticed led to his arrest and interrogation by the Irving Police Department, which mistook the homemade clock for a bomb.
Ahmed, a 14-year-old who has a keen interest in electronics and spends his spare time taking apart and constructing things, started attending the high school only weeks prior to the incident. On Sept. 15, in an attempt to show his mentors his passion for building electronic devices, Ahmed brought his homemade digital clock, which he had built the night before, with him to school.
"Here in high school, none of the teachers know what I can do," Ahmed said in an interview with Dallas Morning News.
Ahmed planned to present the digital clock to his engineering teacher. However, while he was attending his English class, the alarm on the homemade clock beeped and thus, got noticed by the instructor, who insisted that it was a bomb and took the clock even with the boy's explanation.
"I told her, 'It doesn't look like a bomb to me,'" Ahmed said in the same interview.
At 3 p.m. that day, Ahmed was pulled out of class by the principal. Afterward, he was put in handcuffs and escorted out of the school by police officers from the local police department. He was then brought into a room, where four more officers were waiting and proceeded to interrogate the skinny boy with glasses.
Ahmed's sister told me to post this. Yes this situation is real for those questioning. pic.twitter.com/Oxd0JxUS6O
— Prajwol/Ru (@OfficalPrajwol) September 16, 2015
According to Ahmed, while he was being interrogated, the police officers were also going through his belongings. He also noted that the principal threatened him with expulsion. Mugshots and fingerprints were also taken.
The search continued until Ahmed's parents came. He was then released from the juvenile detention facility into their custody. Ahmed is currently suspended from school.
Allegations of racism and Islamophobia have been raised due to the incident.
