In Brooklyn Center, state investigators found that a 16-year-old Black teen applying for a job at Michaels was discriminated against by Brooklyn Center police and the store's manager.
A ruling issued on Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found that the officers used unjustifiable and unreasonable force against the teen after he was racially profiled by the Michaels location's manager.
The incident happened in March of 2019 as three officers responded to a 911 call. The ruling said that the teen "was not bothering anyone. He was not being disruptive. No customers complained about him. There was no reason for the manager to call the police."
The ruling goes on to say that the manager, identified as a white woman, reported that "a kid" was creating a disturbance in the store. She asked him to leave numerous times, and when he did not, she called the police.
She told police that the teen, identified by the manager as "Black with dreads," was "going through the store, playing with the balls, throwing stuff up in the air, knocking stuff off shelves, just being 21."
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The ruling from the MDHR shared that surveillance video from the store showed the customer was "behaving like a typical customer when the manager approached him and asked him to leave."
The ruling continued saying, "The video also shows he was not causing a disturbance of any kind, not bothering anyone, and was not engaged in the conduct described by the store manager in her call to 911. While [teen] was in the store, he walked around, picked up and juggled a few items from the shelves, put the items back, and moved his feet in time to the music.
"Another store employee also testified that [teen] was not acting out of the norm and there was no reason to ask him to leave or to call the police on him."
The teen left the store, but after feeling he had been racially profiled, returned to confront the manager; she called the police a second time. The two met in the store's vestibule, yelling back and forth.
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Three police officers arrived at the scene, confronting the teen. The report said that one officer grabbed the teen, who backed up and raised his hands immediately.
The officers then continued to approach the teen and put him on the ground, placing him in handcuffs, but the report found that they did so without clearly giving any directive on what they wanted him to do.
Throughout the interaction, the teen reportedly yelled, "don't kill me," and "I want to grow up."
Rebecca Lucero, the MDHR Commissioner, shared that finding out what happened was unsettling.
"The facts of this case are both shocking and unsurprising. There was no reason for Michaels to call the police. And no Black child should ever have to plead for their life from police," Lucero said, Kare11 reported. "What happened to this kid is a clear violation of his dignity and his civil rights. We can and must do better, especially when it comes to kids."
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Investigators also found that the officer's statements on what happened contradicted the body camera footage of the incident.
"It's unimaginable how the scariest day of my life started with applying for a job at Michaels," the victim said following the MDHR ruling. "Police were called because of my skin color, and they abused me to the point I thought I was going to die. No human should fear the police when we are taught that they are protectors. There should be some changes, so this never happens again."
The MDHR is working to seek changes by reaching a settlement with the Brooklyn Center Police Department and Michaels Stores. This would include monetary damages for the teen.
Currently, the MDHR is not sharing anything further, as the settlement has not yet been reached.
