BOSTON -- The officer who arrested Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. stirring a national debate about race relations in America was the same officer who tired to resuscitate Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis when he collapsed 16 years ago.

Sgt. James Crowley told the Boston Herald that he gave mouth-to mouth resuscitation when Lewis, an African-American, died 16 years ago.

"I wasn't working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star, I wasn't working on a black man. I was working on another human being," Crowley said in an interview. Lewis died in 1993 when he collapsed during practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley worked.

Gates has accused Crowley of being racist after he was arrested at his Cambridge home as he was trying to budge open a broken door last week. Gates appeared on CNN Wednesday night and called Crowley a rogue officer.

"It is the fault of the policemen who couldn't stand a black man standing up for his rights, right in his face," Gates said on CNN.

In his first interview since his arrest for disorderly conduct, Gates, a renowned scholar of African-American studies, said that the incident was an eye-opener.

"What it made me realize was how vulnerable all black men are, how vulnerable all people of color are and all poor people to capricious forces like a rogue policeman," Gates said.

The disorderly conduct charge has been dropped, but Gates demanded an apology from Crowley, who denied he is a racist.

"There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Sgt. Crowley will not be apologizing," Crowley said in a statement.

The issue of black and white relations was brought up Wednesday night during President Barack Obama's news conference.

"Any of us would be pretty angry. No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly," Obama said.

Crowley reacted to the president's comments in an interview on WEEI Thursday morning. The officer it was "disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue."

Spencer Kimball, an Emerson College professor and president of Kimball Political Consulting, said that he was surprised that Obama "elaborated upon" the Gates case.

"To bring it out as a racist issue is, in my opinion, very irresponsible. Race is a very decisive issue in our society, and to say that someone is racist or using racial profiling without all the facts in hand really only inflames those who want to make this a race issue," Kimball said.

Kimball said that the comments may have done damaged Crowley -- personally and professionally.

"Perhaps the president should have responded with a little bit more tact last night," Kimball said.

Rev. Bruce Wall, of the Global Ministries Church in Dorchester called the relationship between the black community and the police department "frosty," and suggested that Crowley could have acted differently.

"Police officers are trained to identify a situation and make a determination as to what they should do. When the officer recognized that the threat was not imminent, the officer should have de-escalated it by backing away and moving out of the space of Professor Gates," Wall said.

On Wednesday, Bill Carter, the man who snapped a photograph of Gates being led away in handcuffs, said police officers were calm and that Gates was "slightly out of control" and "agitated" when he was arrested.

"The officers around kind of calmed him down," Carter said. "I heard him yelling -- Mr. Gates yelling. I didn't hear anything that he was saying so I couldn't say that he was belligerent."

The city of Cambridge's Police Review and Advisory Board is looking into launching an investigation into Gates' arrest. With so much publicity surrounding the case, the board said an investigation may be needed.

"Every one expects something went wrong -- Mr. Gates does, the police believe that, as we all know, the charges were dropped, so something went wrong," said Joe Johnson of the Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board.