Why Wayne Brady feared for his young daughter's life when she accidentally set off his house alarm
In the wake of George Floyd's death, many black public figures are opening up on their feelings and reactions toward the police.
Actor Wayne Brady recently recalled an experience he had with his daughter Maile Masako Brady, who is now 17, when she locked herself out of his home.
"A couple years ago -- she must have been 14 or 15, and we live in Malibu -- her mom lives in Malibu -- I wasn't home. She set the alarm off in my house," Brady said about his daughter in an interview with Access Hollywood.
"I freaked out because I was giving her the code -- for whatever reason she put it in wrong and it wouldn't accept ... then the alarm company [said] we are sending armed response right now," he continued, recognizing the fact that residential alarm calls often trigger a police dispatch response.
"I was so worried that my daughter could not explain in the heat of the moment, 'Yes, it's my house,'" Brady added.
The actor said that he feared for her safety and told his daughter, "'Get out of the house and run around the corner and down the street about half a mile -- go to your mom's house!"
Brady explained that this fear of the potential interaction she could have with the police stemmed from an incident he had years before when he was living in Sherman Oaks, California.
He recalled locking himself out of his home and being unable to get in, as well as the events that transpired after. "An armed response team came, and I had to prove that it was my house," Brady said.
He said that he believes that protocol "should be the same with anyone if you're outside of someone's house," but admitted he had "fear that these people would hurt me as I'm outside my own house because it's not unprecedented."
His daughter's experience brought back these memories, but he said their situations differed because he knew he "could handle that" because he was a "man" at the time. "But I was fearful for my little girl, and I placed all that fear on her," he shared.
The incident led Brady and Maile's mother, Brady's ex-wife Mandie Taketa, to sit down and "have a talk" with their daughter about the subject at the time.
"Now fast forward -- now she's 17. She's the head of her school's black student union, she's a little activist and she knows her history and she can put people in place," Brady said.
"It's a conversation I'm glad I had because every young black person that we send out in the world, guy or girl, including her boyfriend -- I worry about her boyfriend when he drives, I worry about my 21-year-old nephew -- we need to arm each other with knowledge because it's just necessary."
