Two Black men– Dennis Stewart and Terrance Richardson, are filing a lawsuit against Walmart after being handcuffed and accused of stealing a television in September 2020 in Conroe, Texas.
According to NBC News, the two friends headed to the store to return a defective TV, but staff members ended up calling the police after accusing them of having attempted to steal.
Stewart and Richardson tried showing store employees the receipt from their purchase of $300.94 for the Hisense television but were still handcuffed and treated as criminals.
According to the suit, Stewart and Richardson said they were falsely imprisoned and discriminated against because of their race. After being humiliated and degraded while handcuffed, Stewart began to break down and cry inside the store.
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“Plaintiffs repeatedly asked for an explanation for being detained, searched, handcuffed and embarrassed in such a demeaning fashion, and also why the defective television was not allowed to be exchanged,” the lawsuit said.
Despite pleading for answers, employees nor police answered them.
“It was at this point Dennis — a grown 50+year old man — began to cry and begged for answers,” according to the suit.
The two victims claim that employees at the store took an hour to go over the receipt properly, and meanwhile, they remained with their hands on their heads as instructed by four white officers.
When they were released, a Walmart employee allegedly said to ‘[get the] f**k out of this store, and never come f*****g back.’”
Walmart said, “We do not tolerate discrimination and take allegations like this seriously in a statement regarding the incident. When the claims were brought to our attention in April of this year, we investigated them. We are not getting into further detail given the litigation and will respond as appropriate with the court.”
According to the lawsuit, the men were required to sign a “Criminal Trespass Warning” that ensures that criminal charges stayed on the record at Walmart if they ever tried to return to the store.
Stewart and Richardson are requesting a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages.
