The Brewster family had just left church when they entered a Florida Walmart to exchange some clothes they had purchased for their daughter the previous day that turned out to be too small for her.
The Black family of five ended up falsely accused of attempting to steal the items they were trying to exchange and ordered into a security room with television monitors, where they were confronted by security guards and sheriff deputies.
Fortunately, the Jacksonville sheriff’s deputies recognized the family was being falsely accused and eventually let them go.
But not before husband and wife Raymond and Nekeeya Brewster, along with their three daughters, ages 12, 7, and 1, were forced to sit on a bench while the security guards searched through the surveillance video to show the cops their alleged evidence that the family had been trying to steal merchandise.
But there was no evidence.
“You are free to go, if you’d like to meet me in the parking lot, I’ll write a report on this entire event for you,” the deputy told the family after realizing they had been falsely accused, according to the lawsuit filed last month which mentions several past incidents where Walmart employees racially profiled Black customers.
“The Brewster family is not alone,” states the lawsuit filed by Jacksonville attorney Rory Diamond on Nov 26.
“Walmart repeatedly, systemically, and disproportionately discriminates against Black customers. Specifically, Walmart security and related personnel profile Black customers who have done nothing wrong based on little or no evidence other than their race.”
Other incidents mentioned in the lawsuit include the 2020 incident where a Black man in Oregon named Michael Mangum was awarded more than $4 million after a jury trial in 2022; as well as the 2020 incident of two Black men detained at a Texas Walmart trying to return a television set which was settled last year for an undisclosed amount.
Another incident not mentioned in the lawsuit took place in an Arkansas Walmart in 2021, where a Black man named Roderick Johnson sued Walmart, claiming he was detained under the “false pretense of shoplifting,” which remains pending. Johnson is demanding $100 million or unlimited shopping at Walmart for the rest of his life.
“The Brewsters are focused on changing Walmart’s practice of security profiling Black customers and will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the Proposed Class members,” the recent lawsuit states.
The Detainment
On Saturday, Oct. 13, the Brewster family entered the Walmart on City Square Drive in Jacksonville and purchased clothes for one of their daughters.
However, when they got home, they realized the clothes were too small for their growing daughter, so they planned to exchange the items the following day. On Sunday, the family attended church and then drove to the Walmart store to make the exchange.
Hoping to avoid any problems with security, Nekeeya placed the clothes and the receipt into the Walmart bag and tied it shut.
The family then entered the store, and Nekeeya placed the bag into a shopping cart and walked to the children’s department, where she picked out the same clothes in a larger size. Her husband walked to another section of the store.
Nekeeya then walked to the customer service counter to make the exchange, which included five items of clothing and another five items larger in size. That was when she untied the bag and pulled out the clothes she wanted to exchange along with the receipt for those items.
During the process, the customer service worker apparently received a call from the security guards, prompting the employee to stall the exchange. Raymond joined his wife in the customer service line, which had been growing longer with customers due to the delay.
About 10 minutes later, a plainclothes security guard named Stephen George Mullen approached the family and accused them of stealing.
“Ma’am, we saw you put something in your bag,” he announced in a loud voice, drawing stares from other customers before repeating the same accusation.
“No, you didn’t see anything in my bag. What are you talking about?” Nekeeya responded.
“Ma’am, I have you putting these pair of pants in your bag,” Mullen continued.
“Sir, I have a receipt that shows we purchased these clothes on Saturday,” Nekeeya responded, trying to hand Mullen the receipt from the previous day. “You can match the UPC with the barcode on the pants, right?”
But Mullen was not interested in examining the receipt, the claim states.
“No, we can’t do that,” Mullen informed her before calling another security guard on his walkie-talkie.
“They are telling us they don’t have us on camera,” Mullen told the second security guard, identified as Willie Frank McFayden Jr.
“Yes, I saw you,” McFayden claimed.
“No, no,” Nekeeya responded, but the guards still refused to examine the receipt.
Instead, they both left and ordered the family to remain at the counter, telling them to move aside to allow the other customers to speak to employees. Twenty minutes later, Mullen returned and told the family to “come with me.”
The family gathered their belongings and followed Mullen to the middle of the store, where they were greeted by two Jacksonville sheriff’s deputies. They then ordered the family to follow them into the security room near the front of the store.
The family was ordered to sit on a bench while one of the deputies told them they were there to “keep the peace.”
“We didn’t steal anything,” Nekeeya told the deputy. “Not sure why they think we did. We have a receipt for everything we purchased.”
And that was when the deputies realized the security guards had lied to them.
“They have a receipt?” one of the deputies asked the guards. “That’s not the information you said to us, that not what’s on bodycam.”
“We think we saw her put items in her bag,” Mullens explained.
“That’s not the information you said to us,” the second deputy said. “That’s not what’s on bodycam.”
The security guards proceeded to search through the video footage to show the deputies the portion where Nekeeya was placing items in a bag but were unable to find anything.
“You can’t show us anything that even looks like she puts something in the bag,” the first deputy told the security guards. “You didn’t see them put anything in the bag.”
After a pause, McFayden admitted “no,” they had seen no such thing. That was when the deputies informed the family they were free to go.
“The Brewster family was security profiled, wrongfully imprisoned, wrongfully detained, defamed, discriminated against in violation of their civil rights, and humiliated,” states the claim which accuses Walmart of civil rights violations, wrongful imprisonment, defamation and slander and intentional inflection of emotional distress.
