Tennis Star James Blake Mistakenly Arrested By NYPD Over Identity Theft

At one point in James Blake's career he was ranked 4th in the world. He was a two-time Quarterfinalist at the US Open and won 10 career ATP Tour Titles. Yesterday the decorated tennis star and Olympian was welcomed by the unwelcoming arms of the NYPD when officers thought he was the man involved in their identity theft investigation. He was not the guy they were looking for though. In the end the five plainclothes officers tackled and handcuffed him outside his Manhattan hotel not knowing he was innocent. The witnesses who pointed Blake out to police mistook him for somebody else.

Blake just so happened to be in the same Hyatt Hotel where the Identity Theft Task Force was looking for a man purchasing cell phones with fraudulent credit cards. Apparently the suspect in the case delivered two cell phones to people in the lobby of the hotel. After taking Blake down, the officers ended up finding the guy involved.

Blake told reporters at the Daily News that he didn't understand why he was tackled by the officers. According to the tennis star, he believes race was a factor.

"In my mind there's probably a race factor involved, but no matter what, there's no reason for anybody to do that to anybody," Blake told New York paper. "I was just standing there. I wasn't running. It's not even close (to being OK). It's blatantly unnecessary."

New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has ordered an internal affairs probe into the attempted arrest on Blake. He also commented on the situation by saying race was not a factor; he just looked like the suspect.

"Sorry, race has nothing at all to do with this," Bratton told CNN. "If you look at the photograph of the suspect, it looks like the twin brother of Mr. Blake. So let's put that nonsense to rest right now."