Donisha Prendergast, granddaughter of Bob and Rita Marley, is planning to take legal action against the Rialto Police Department in California.

Her action comes in the wake of an April 30 incident in which she and three friends were detained by the police as they were leaving an Airbnb residence they rented.

Airbnb is the online marketplace and hospitality service for people seeking to lease or rent short-term lodging.

According to media reports, while Prendergast and friends was removing their luggage from the house, a neighbour called the police reporting that black people were seen breaking into the house and removing its contents.

In a video posted on social media, Prendergast was seen explaining to the police officers that she had rented the location and was just checking out. She then called the owner of the house informing her of the situation.

“There are four police officers here,” said Prendergast. “We watched your neighbour call the police.”

Prendergast is the daughter of former Melody Maker Sharon Marley and former FIFA referee Peter Prendergast. A film-maker and activist, she was recently cast in the pilot for a web series Savannah, which was released on social media. In 2011 she filmed RasTa: A Soul’s Journey, which saw her travelling to eight countries to explore the root of Rasta.

The Rialto Police have reportedly confirmed receiving the intent to pursue legal action, but there is still no word as to what form this will take. The party of friends claim they were detained after having been blocked in by the police, who prevented them from leaving until the matter was resolved. Prendergast and her friends were also reportedly told that they were also being tracked by helicopters. They were never handcuffed.

Several efforts to contact Prendergast were unsuccessful.

Film-maker Kells Fyffe-Marshall, who was detained with Prendergast, took to Facebook to recount the ordeal.

“About 20 minutes into this misunderstanding it escalated almost instantly. Their sergeant arrived… he explained they didn’t know what Airbnb was. He insisted that we were lying about it and said we had to prove it. We showed them the booking confirmations and phoned the landlord… because they didn’t know what she looked like on the other end to confirm it was her… they detained us — because they were investigating a felony charge — for 45 minutes while they figured it out,” said Fyffe-Marshall.

“The cops admit that the woman’s reason for calling the police was because we didn’t WAVE to her as she looked at us putting our luggage into our car from her lawn,” she added.

— RJ