Bodycam footage shows police officers handcuffing Coogler inside the bank, with a close-up of the back of his sweatshirt, which reads “Fear of God.”
“What’s going on?” Coogler asks as he put his hands behind his back.
The officers then bring him outside and put him in the back of the police car.
Coogler explains to officers that the money was for a medical assistant who works for his family who prefers to be paid in cash. He adds that he didn’t want the people around him to know how much money he was taking out and that he regularly gives bank tellers a note when withdrawing cash.
“She got scared when a Black dude handed her a note,” Coogler says to police in the video. “If she was scared, she’s got to admit that.”
While Coogler explains what happened, he also tells officers that he feels he’s about to have a panic attack and is trying to manage his emotions.
“Y’all explaining y’all’s perspective, right,” Coogler says to the police. “Y’all the ones with guns and vests. Y’all understanding what I’m saying? What’s my perspective? What’s my perspective? At the bank, she never shared there was a fucking problem, bro.”
Two people who were waiting for Coogler in a black SUV outside the bank are also handcuffed. After everyone is questioned and the police seem to determine there had been a mistake, Coogler asks for everyone to be removed from handcuffs. The police oblige.
Coogler asks for all the officers’ names. When an officer suggests he write it down, the director says he wasn’t going to reach in his car for a pen or piece of paper.
“I’m not reaching in there, bro,” Coogler says to the police. “I ain’t had guns drawn on me in a while, bro. Y’all understand what I’m saying? I’m trying to get my own money out of my own account. … It’s a major problem, man.”
Police wrote down a list of all the officers involved in the incident as well as the case number and provided it to Coogler, the footage shows.
In the 911 call, the bank teller tells the operator that when she asked Coogler a question about how he wanted the money, he told her to look at the note on the deposit slip.
“I asked for his ID and he handed me his ID,” the teller tells the operator in the 911 call. “It’s a California ID, but I didn’t look at his name because I’m just, like, so shook up. I don’t know what he’s trying to do.”
Coogler is a writer and director whose Oscar-winning and -nominated films include Black Panther and Creed. He is currently in Atlanta filming the sequel to his Marvel hit, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, set to premiere on Nov. 11.