NYPD accused of holding Brooklyn woman hostage for 16 hours

BROWNSVILLE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A Brooklyn community is concerned over the way a grandmother says she was handled by police. Rolinda Walls claims police held her hostage in her apartment for 16 hours, and now, community leaders are demanding an investigation.

Walls says the next time police come knocking at her door, she won't let them inside her home. That statement is the result of what she describes as nearly 16 hours of "being held hostage" by NYPD officers.

Walls says her ordeal began when detectives arrived at her apartment in the Van Dyke Houses in the Brownsville section at about 11:30 p.m. on October 21, asking to see her 27-year-old daughter. When Walls told them the daughter wasn't home, they asked to come inside. She agreed, because she said she had nothing to hide. It is a decision Walls said she now regrets.

For the next 16 hours, until 3:30 in the afternoon the next day, Walls said she was essentially held hostage by the NYPD. She claims neither she nor her other daughter or granddaughter were allowed to leave the apartment.

Several detectives and uniformed officers reportedly searched the apartment without a warrant and even stood guard inside and out, Walls said.

Walls' older son, who she'd called in a panic, even drove at least five and a half hours from Pittsburgh, and the police were still in the apartment.

When the NYPD finally left, Walls said she was handed a summons for marijuana allegedly found in her 24-year-old son's room, but she was given no explanation for why police had been there in the first place.

Community leaders are now joining her in demanding an explanation and punishment for the officers involved.

Walls said she's also considering filing a lawsuit against the city.