Wyclef Jean Feared For His Life When He Was ‘Wrongly Arrested’ By Los Angeles Police

Rapper Wyclef Jean says he was afraid for his life after cops misidentified him for a suspect and briefly cuffed him in West Hollywood.

The Haitian hip-hop artist, who has threatened to sue Los Angeles police over the ordeal, admits he felt rattled during his six-minute detainment — a situation that his team has since described as racial profiling.

"I have family on both sides of the lens but I got a chance to see what happens with a citizen versus a police firsthand," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. "And I have to tell you, I was scared for my life to the point where I could have acted different. And if I acted different, something else would have happened to me."

"I'm alive to tell my story," he continued.

Jean was handcuffed by police early Tuesday morning, an incident he chronicled on social media by sharing a short video to his social media pages.

In the clip, which was shot by a Jean's colleague, the rapper is seen in handcuffs near a police vehicle with its lights on, close to the scene of where police said an armed robbery had occurred earlier in the night.

"You all see the police have handcuffs on me. They just took off my Haitian bandana," Jean says in the video. "The LAPD have me in cuffs for absolutely nothing."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has since issued an apology for the incident, with cops saying the "Sweetest Girl" artist had matched up with a vague description of the robbery suspect. The car he was driving also resembled the description of the one the suspect drove, cops said.

The department has, however, defended the detainment as being within the guidelines in their search to catch the real suspects.

A spokeswomen for Jean said the Fugees founder wants there to be a "formal investigation into racial profiling" by the authorities.

"(Jean) was subject to police brutality, racial profiling, police bias and the ongoing discriminatory practices of law enforcement officials which remain rampant throughout the United States and for which the LA Sheriff's office is deeming a case of mistaken identity," Melanie A. Bonvicino said.

Two suspects have been arrested in connection to the robbery.

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