My grandson, Ricky, was arrested and put in the back of the squad car. I stood there, helpless but aware that he wasn’t a bad boy. Yes, Ricky could be stubborn at times, but he wasn’t a criminal, something deep down told me that.

“He’ll be booked downtown, ma’am,” the police officer who handcuffed him said. “You’ll be able to see him soon.”

The hours that followed seemed like eternity. No one called, no one knocked on the door. But all I could do was wait.

Later that evening, the same officer, in his late 30s, knocked on my door.
“Where’s my grandson?” I asked, scared and confused.

“He’s being processed,” the officer said, and then, after a short pause, he added: “Ms. Halloway… there’s something you need to know.”

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With regret in his eyes, he said, “I arrested the wrong kid.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about. If Ricky didn’t do anything then why wasn’t he home?

The office took the time to explain everything to me. It turned out that Ricky’s best friend, Troy Baxter, was the one to be blamed. The two were inseparable, but during the last couple of months they somehow stopped hanging out. Troy got involved in some suspicious activities with a gang of criminals. When he tried to persuade Ricky to do the same, he rejected, and that’s when things broke between them.

According to the officer, a surveillance footage from a local store showed Troy placing something inside Ricky’s backpack.
“But why would he do something like that?” I asked.

“We still don’t know, but I have a feeling he was trying to protect himself or someone else. We brought him in for questioning. He got nervous, started tripping over his own words.”

In the morning, Ricky was released.

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Sadly, he didn’t feel right in the days to come as the news of his arrest spread around the school. It took some time for people to learn that it was just a misunderstanding and that he didn’t do anything wrong.

The officer told me that when my grandson was arrested, no one assumed something huge would be uncovered – a gang of drug dealers who were finally brought to justice.
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