A day after Trayon Christian's lawsuit became public, a second shopper has stepped forward claiming she was also racially profiled after making a purchase at Barneys, the Associated Press reported.
Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing student, and mother, from Brooklyn, said she was approached in the train station by four NYPD officers after buying a $2,500 Celine handbag at Barneys in February, according to The Daily News.
Phillips, who had been eyeing the orange suede bag for a while, went to Barneys after receiving a tax return on her Bank of America debit card to make the purchase on Feb. 28. After walking three blocks to the Lexington Ave. and 59th St. subway station, Phillips said she was surrounded by four undercover cops, The Daily News reported.
"There were three men and a woman, two of them attacked me and pushed me against a wall, and the other two appeared in front of me, blocking the turnstile," Phillips told The Daily News.
She also intends to sue the police department and the high-end retail store.
Phillips' encounter mimics, Christian's experience. The 19-year-old filed a lawsuit against Barneys New York claiming he was detained after making a $350 purchase due to racial profiling.
According to the lawsuit, Christian went to Barneys on April 29 after saving money from his part-time job to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt. Christian said when he went to pay for the belt with his debit card, the associate behind the register asked to see his identification, which he showed.
Shortly after making the purchase and walking out of the store, Christian was approached by two undercover NYPD officers who asked him "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court, NBC 4 New York reported.
Rev. Al Sharpton's civil rights group, National Action Network, is seeking a meeting with the CEO of Barneys after the two claims went public. Kirsten John Foy, president of NAN, said in statement that the group will picket Barneys if the alleged pattern of racial profiling continues, the AP reported.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Barneys denied it had any involvement in the detention of the shopper and said "that after carefully reviewing the incident of last April, it is clear that no employee of Barneys New York was involved in the pursuit of any action with the individual other than the sale."
"Barneys New York has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and we stand by our long history in support of all human rights," Barneys' said in a statement.
According to the report, the officers said someone from the store raised concerns over the sale. The officers then asked to see Christian's identification which he showed them, along with the receipt and the debit card used in the transaction.
After being told that his identification was false and "that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase," Christian was taken to a precinct where he waited for about two hours as they called his bank who verified his identification, according to the AP. He was released without charges.
The lawsuit states Christian was detained and questioned due "discrimination based on plaintiff's race and age as he was a young black American male," according to the AP.
"Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian told NBC. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."
Christian said he later returned the belt to Barneys because he no longer wanted anything to do with it.
The department said any officers' role is under internal review. The city's law department said it was waiting for a formal copy of Christian's lawsuit and would review the claim once it had been received.
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