HOUSTON – Former Houston Astros player Jose Cruz, Jr. has a lot of history in the Houston area. He went to Bellaire High School and Rice University, and then he played for the Astros. 

He no longer lives in Houston, but there is a reason why he moved away.

He's never shied away from talking about plays he's made on the baseball field, there is something Cruz rarely talks about: a situation that happened at an intersection in Bellaire approximately seven years ago.

The Puerto Rican national said he was in his brand-new Mercedes with his pregnant wife and two kids when Bellaire police pulled him over.  At the time, he said he had no idea what he had done wrong.

"They came out of nowhere," said Cruz. “The officer proceeded to arrest me. He told me that there were warrants out for my arrest. I told him that I didn’t have so much as a ticket, much less a warrant."

ASTROS.COM

Jose Cruz Jr. most recently played for the Houston Astros.

The Bellaire High School grad ended up spending the night in jail. But it was a mistake. Cruz said it turned out that those warrants weren't for him.

Paul Doyle is the ballplayer's attorney, and he said there is real problem in the area. He believes Cruz may have been a victim of racial profiling.

“It wasn't until we got involved that the police came up with the pretext that they pulled him over because he didn’t have a front license plate. That was the excuse they used,” said Doyle. “They're not going to say that they saw a Puerto Rican guy driving a nice car and stopped him.”

Doyle said that Cruz never wanted to come forward at the time, but the shooting of Robbie Tolan brought back too many bad memories.

Tolan was shot by a police officer two weeks ago in his parents' driveway. Tolan, who is a minor league baseball player, was pulled over after police believed the SUV he owned was stolen.

The Bellaire City Manager said he wasn't aware of what happened to Cruz, but said he is concerned and will look into it. He said there could be more of a problem than he originally thought.