Buying a TV while Black

4 white Missouri cops sued for alleged brutality on 68-year-old black woman and son in a Sam’s Club

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Four white police officers allegedly used excessive force on a 68-year-old black woman and her adult son after the son was wrongly accused of stealing a TV in a Missouri Sam’s Club, a new lawsuit claims. Marvia Gray suffered “mental anguish” as well as injuries to her tailbone, back, shoulder, knees and arms when she was thrown to the ground and handcuffed March 23 inside the Des Peres store, the lawsuit filed Monday in St. Louis County alleges. Her 43-year-old son, Derek, suffered a concussion, three shattered teeth and other injuries, the paperwork obtained by the Daily News states.

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At the Sam’s Club, Derek purchased a 65-inch Sony Bravia flat-screen TV for his mother, along with other items, Stroth said. When they tried to load the massive TV in their 2018 Lexus SUV and realized it wouldn’t fit, they asked the store to hold it until Derek could retrieve it later. A Des Peres Police officer in the store mistakenly thought he was stealing the TV when he returned later. The officer followed Derek to his SUV and voiced his suspicion before a store employee intervened and explained the TV was paid for, the lawsuit said. Despite receiving this information, the officer still called the Des Peres Police Department and “falsely reported that he had ‘witnessed Gray steal a TV and place it in the parked vehicle,’” the lawsuit states. When Derek reported the incident to his mom, they decided to return the TV due to the experience with the false allegations, the lawsuit states. While the Grays were at the store seeking a refund, the four officers, including the one who made the emergency call, “violently and physically seized Marvia Gray and Derek Gray, throwing them to the floor, beating them, handcuffing them, then arresting them," the paperwork states.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2zfzluP