WATCH: Macy’s Employee Beaten on Video in Flint, Michigan

The man shown in a viral video beating a Macy’s store employee in Flint, Michigan on June 15 has been charged with assault.

According to ABC, the “Genesee County Prosecutor charged 18-year-old Damire Palmer with assault to do great bodily harm less than murder.” Authorities called the incident an “unprovoked attack.”

The brother of the man seen beating the employee wrote on Facebook that the employee used a racial epithet in the store. The slur is not heard in the video. Macy’s says it completed a full investigation and released a statement that said, in part, “all the materials from the evening have been reviewed and it is clear that the attack was unprovoked.”

Rapper FT Quay claimed to have filmed the incident at the Genesee Valley Center mall. The rapper posted the video to Facebook, but it was later removed.

Quay said the clip shows the moments after a white Macy’s employee, who has not yet been identified, was overheard calling a Black shopper ‘n*****’ while on the phone. The man is not heard using the racial slur in the video. To the New York Post, Quay claimed that his brother “got the shirt, just picked it up. He didn’t have it on physically. He just put it over his body. He asked him, ‘Does this shirt look too little?’ And he politely said, ‘Yes,’ and continued back on the phone with the remark, ‘No one, just some n—r.’”

However, Macy’s insists the attack was not provoked by the employee.

“We are deeply saddened about the incident that took place on Monday [June 15] at Macy’s Genesee Valley as the safety of Macy’s customers and colleagues is our top priority,” Andrea Schwartz, Macy’s senior director of media relations, said. “Violence in the workplace of any kind is unacceptable. All the materials from the evening have been reviewed and it is clear that the attack was unprovoked. We are working closely with local authorities on this investigation, and will defer any further comments about the case to them per policy.”

In the video, a Black shopper can be seen approaching and hitting the white employee while he is on a cellphone call. The employee then falls to the ground. The employee asks, “what are you doing that for?” as he is knocked to the ground. The shopper hits the employee a second time as he lies on the floor. The employee places a hand over his head and tries to move away while repeating, “I didn’t touch you, I didn’t touch you… I’m sorry.” In the video, the attacker repeatedly uses the N word, but the employee is not heard to use it.

Film producer and activist Tariq Nasheed posted the clip online on June 17.

The New York Post reported that Quay wrote in his original Facebook post, “This not the whole video but Me and bro in the mall n sh*t and he ask this man otp did this shirt look to little he told hi yea and kept talking on the phone then mumbled talking about sum ‘no one just sum n*****’ he though we ain’t hear em because his mask was on.”

Facebook

Quay, the 22-year-old rapper from Michigan who filmed the event, told the New York Post the man in the video is his brother, and his reaction was a spur of the moment instinctive response.

He said the pair “made a petty joke” while shirt shopping and “asked the guy was the shirt too little … He was just being funny.” Quay elaborated that his brother reacted after the employee made “the remark … that we all heard.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Flint Police Are Seeking Two Persons of Interest

In a news release, Flint Township Police wrote,

The Flint Township Police Department is looking for two persons of interest in the Macy’s incident: Damire Canell Palmer, 18, of Mount Morris and Damarquay Jovan Palmer, 22, of Flint Township. Flint Township Investigators are seeking the facts surrounding the incident and encourage Damire Palmer and Damarquay Palmer to meet with investigators so their statement can be provided.

Police released these photos of the persons of interest:

Flint policeThe persons of interest.

The Flint Township Police Department released the following statement on June 19 in relation to the incident, urging members of the public with any information to come forward:

On Monday June 15th 2020 at approximately 5:45 pm, officers with the Flint Township Police Department were dispatched to … Macy’s for an assault complaint. Officers learned an employee of the store was assaulted by a young black male who fled the store with a second individual after the assault. Store surveillance video confirmed the assault against the employee.

Investigators also learned the assault was recorded by the second individual and shared on social media.

Shore News Network reported that Macy’s “turned over all surveillance video to the police department.” In a statement published by the news outlet, Macy’s said:

We are deeply saddened about the incident that took place on Monday (June 15) at Macy’s Genesee Valley as the safety of Macy’s customers and colleagues is our top priority.

Violence in the workplace of any kind is unacceptable. All the materials from the evening have been reviewed and it is clear that the attack was unprovoked. We are working closely with local authorities on this investigation, and will defer any further comments about the case to them per policy.

Township Police Lieutenant Brad Wangler confirmed with MLive-The Flint Journal that police were investigating, but so far no one had been taken into custody in relation to the incident.

President Donald Trump and conservative blogger Matt Walsh took to Twitter to denounce the incident.

Scenes of White People Using the N-Word Were Captured on Video Recently in New York & the U.K.

The New York Post reported on June 22 that a Black Yale Ph.D. psychology student, Kathryn Graves, 27, was repeatedly called an ape by a “middle-aged white woman” on a Manhattan street.

The student had been “walking in Midtown in her Black Lives Matter T-shirt Saturday afternoon when the woman began shouting at her, prompting her to turn down the music in her headphones.”

The video shows the unidentified woman repeatedly calling the student “n***** ape.”

Graves told the New York Post that during the encounter she “blocked off how hurtful the words were and more was just thinking pragmatically.” She said she feared the woman, who she suspects is homeless, may have been concealing a weapon, or “if her hands had been empty she could have hit me.”

Graves said she had been “in touch with [NYPD] officers and another potential victim of the same woman.”

Metro newspaper in the U.K. shared a video today of a Black man’s white neighbor calling him ‘n*****’ on the doorstep of his home as he asks her to leave his property. The 30-year-old woman in the video, filmed in the London suburb of Hackney, was later arrested. The video shows the white woman, who has not been identified, raising her middle finger at the man and attempting to grab the camera out of his hand.

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