Gay black customers claim cashier sprayed them with pepper spray

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Two gay black women sue a Silver Lake 7-Eleven store, alleging that their civil rights and those of a 13-year-old girl with them were violated when the cashier sprayed all three with pepper spray and hit one of the adults with a baton in a wicket showdown this spring.

The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Shaquesha McFrazier and Sabrina Westbrook against the store at 3555 W. Temple Ave. and its owner, Kiran Hussain. The 13-year-old is also a plaintiff, but her relationship with the adult women is not indicated in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The brutal assault, bodily harm and denial of service were due to the complainants’ race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, the lawsuit said.

A message left at the store for Hussain was not immediately returned.

The three plaintiffs went to the store on May 24, selected items and went to the counter to pay, the lawsuit said. The cashier, a non-black man, was immediately rude, suspicious and aggressive towards them, according to the lawsuit, which does not indicate whether the cashier was Hussain.

After McFrazier did his shopping, the cashier pushed the items across the counter towards her, prompting McFrazier to say, don’t do that. It’s rude, says the costume.

The cashier came out from behind the counter with a metal baton, then pulled out a pepper spray and, unprovoked, sprayed the three complainants with the substance on their faces and heads, the lawsuit said.

During this brutal attack, he hit the complainant Westbrook in the neck with the baton, according to the prosecution.

The employee spat curses at the trio with hatred and told them: Get out, get out, go, go, go, depending on the costume.

The plaintiffs were forced to flee the store without most of the items they had already paid for and had to use the water bottle they purchased to wash some of the harmful splashes from the teens’ faces and heads, indicates the pursuit.

Complainants were treated disparately from non-black and / or heterosexual male clients, the lawsuit alleges.

Gay black customers allege cashier sprayed them with pepper spray was last modified: Aug 5, 2021 by Contributing Editor

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