JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville family is speaking out after a Walmart employee called the police on them, despite doing nothing wrong. Now, they’re suing Walmart, accusing them of racial profiling.
“It was immediate guilt that we stole something,” Raymond Brewster said.
Raymond Brewster said he never expected a return to go so poorly. He and his family were just going to the Walmart in North Estates to exchange clothes for their toddler when a security person claimed they stole the clothes they had just brought inside. And they even had proof with an itemized receipt.
Now, they’re filing a class-action lawsuit not just based on what happened to them, but on what they said happened to many others, nationwide.
It began when Raymond and his wife bought clothes for their toddler on Oct. 13, but later learned they didn’t fit.
So, after church on Sunday, as a family with their three kids, they went to the Supercenter Walmart on City Square Drive to return the merchandise.
Raymond said his wife explained her plan, saying, “What I’ll do is at the entry of the Walmart, [I’ll come] with the bag and the clothes in it, with the receipt, she tied the bag up.”
They had a receipt showing all the items they brought inside the store to exchange. Raymond said his wife went to the kids’ section to find the replacement items and then went to customer service where things got out of hand.
“Somebody approached us from behind saying ‘Ma’am we caught you on camera stealing,’” Raymond said.
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The security guard claims they stole the clothes they were trying to exchange.
“Not only did this catch me off guard, this caught our children off guard as well because we always teach them to do the right thing,” Raymond said.
Raymond said he tried showing them the receipt, but a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report said the officers got a different story from Walmart security that day. It said the Brewster family ‘needed to be “stopped’” for “attempting to make a fraudulent return.”
That’s when Raymond said he showed the officers the receipt. The lawsuit claims the officer responded with…
“That’s not what I have on body cam, that’s not what y’all told us when we came into the store,” Raymond recounted what the officer said.
The officers let the Brewster family go. And a week later, the Brewster family said Walmart reached out asking them if they wanted $1,000.
“For me, that’s an admission of guilt, they know they have a flaw in their policy that needs to be changed,” Raymond said.
The lawsuit alleges, the Brewsters aren’t the only ones – claiming there are hundreds other cases.
“We want to make sure that Walmart doesn’t treat black customers differently than every other customer that comes in especially when it comes to security,” Brewster’s attorney and city councilman Rory Diamond said.
Diamond and the Douglas Law Firm represent the Brewster family and said no black customer should ever have to experience this again.
“You only have to meet the Brewster family for 10 seconds to realize that these are some of the nicest, most decent people you will ever meet,” Diamond said. “And the fact that people in Walmart treated them this way, is just absolutely outrageous.”
Action News Jax reached out to Walmart and a spokesperson said, “We take these allegations seriously and will respond accordingly once we are served with the complaint.”
As for Diamond and his law firm, they are working to get JSO’S body camera footage along with Walmart’s camera footage from that day.
Diamond is also asking, if you’ve had a similar issue, to reach out to him – he wants to add as many people to this lawsuit as possible, with a goal to change the policy for the entire country.
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