"Empire" actress Taraji Henson arrives at the 14th annual Critics' Choice awards in Santa Monica, California, January 8, 2009. (Photo : REUTERS/HECTOR MATA)
"Empire" star Taraji P. Henson, 44, took to Instagram on March 28, Saturday, to publicly apologize to the cop she accused of racially profiling her son Marcell Johnson, 20.
In the Instagram post, Henson said, "I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department. A mother's job is not easy and neither is a police officer's. Sometimes as humans WE over react without gathering all of the facts. As a mother in this case I over reacted and for that I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son."
Henson also tweeted the Instagram post with #TurningANegativeIntoAPositive and #LoveTarajiPHenson.
Prior to this, a video released by the Los Angeles Times shows the Emmy-winning actress claiming that officers racially profiled her son, who was pulled over by a Glendale police officer after failing to yield to a pedestrian on Oct. 18, 2014.
At the time, Johnson admitted to having marijuana and the prescription drug Ritalin given to him by a friend in his Honda Civic when asked if he had anything illegal in his car. He admitted to smoking pot around two hours earlier. The police let him off with a citation and a warning after consenting to a search and a sobriety test.
In an interview with the Uptown magazine prior to her public apology, Henson said her son "did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn't give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for."
Henson is known for her role Cookie Lyon in the TV series "Empire," which also stars Jussie Smollett, Terrence Howard, Bryshere Y. Gray, Trai Byers and Kaitlin Doubleday, among others.
