"I am sorry. I made a mistake. I used poor judgment," said Officer Robert Powell, the embattled policeman whose detainment of football player Ryan Moats caused national outrage.

On the dash cam footage from the incident, Moats can be heard pleading to get inside the Dallas area hospital where his mother-in-law lay dying. "My mother-in-law is dying right now! I can't understand why you can't understand that!"

Officer Powell pulled over Moats for running a red light, but then ignored his pleas to let him go to the beside of his dying mother-in-law. 

In his on-air apology Powell says, "As I think back to my family, to my mother, that if I was in his situation that if I want to get to my mother, I'm going to do every thing I can to do it."

The 25-year-old told KTVT in Dallas that he's received death threats and has put his family into seclusion. He's now on administrative leave. "To say I'm scared of being fired I think is an understatement. I'm terrified. I have two young children. They are my life."

One part of the confrontation is still in dispute.

On Good Morning America, Moats's wife Tamisha described her fearful confrontation with the officer. "He could [have] shot me. He pointed the gun at me and he basically said, 'Don't take another step.'"

However, Powell denies pointing his gun at Moats's wife. 
 
"My recollection is that I did not point my weapon at anybody," he says. "When I found that there was no threat, I did reholster my weapon immediately."

Powell has apologized to the Moats family and says he would like to meet with them personally in hopes of clearing his name. "That is not me. That is not every officer that is out there on the streets across the country, and I hope that anybody watching this, officer or not, can see my mistake and know, hey, this is not the way to handle this kind of situation."

UPDATE Wednesday, 4/1/09:
Officer Robert Powell resigned from his position with the Dallas Police Department.