'SNL' Alum Jay Pharoah Stopped by LAPD, Knee to Neck in Case of 'Mistaken Identity'

Former "SNL" cast member Jay Pharoah was jogging down a San Fernando Valley street, when multiple LAPD cops pulled their guns on him, ordered him spreadeagled on the ground and one officer then put his knee on Jay's neck ... Jay says all because he matched a vague description of a black suspect wearing gray.

Jay posted the video Friday night and said the incident went down approximately one week before Ahmaud Arbery's murder. He says he was getting exercise, wearing noise-canceling headphones, when he saw the cops approach. He thought whoever they were after was in big trouble ... and then it dawned on him -- they were after him.

The cops told Jay he fit the description of a suspect -- black male wearing gray sweatpants and a gray shirt.

You see the security footage in Jay's video, and it matches his narration. You see a cop approach Jay from behind, with gun pointed. Another officer arrives with his gun in the air, and a patrol car rolls up and one of the 2 cops exits with his gun drawn.

Jay was cuffed, and with a knee to the neck, he urgently tried explaining he was not the guy they were looking for. He told the cops to look him up on Google, adding, "You will see that you made a big mistake." He says the cops released him "a minute later."

Jay says he's gone public with his story because he could have been Ahmaud Arbery or George Floyd, and "I'm still here to tell my story."

Jay ended by saying his parents tried to shield him from racism, but now he says as black men, "we have the knowledge and we have the power to overthrow," adding, "I'm Jay Pharoah, and I'm a black man in America and my life matters. Black lives always matter."