In January 2021, two police officers were in a West Chester Meijer looking for an accused shoplifter described as a white man in his 30s, wearing a dark green or gray Carhart jacket with a red hoodie underneath.
But the first person they stopped didn’t match that description, which a Meijer employee allegedly had given to West Chester Township Police.
It was a 60-year-old Black man, Eric Lindsay, who was wearing an orange down coat and a brown-and-tan scarf. He had stopped at the Meijer on Tylersville Road after work that evening.
West Chester Township police officers, Meijer in Butler County faced with lawsuit
It’s not entirely clear why the officers approached Lindsay, who has sued the officers and Meijer in Butler County Common Pleas Court.
In a police bodycam video provided by Lindsay's attorney, one of the West Chester officers, Tanner Csendes, can be heard saying to his partner, Tim Mitkenbaugh, that Lindsay had been watching him as he walked through the busy store.
“He was, like, mirroring me,” Csendes says in the video.
The officers didn’t end up arresting Lindsay, although they questioned him for several minutes in an aisle as other shoppers looked on. As the officers were talking to Lindsay, they learned that another officer had detained the shoplifting suspect.
That person was a white man in his 30s who was wearing an olive green coat.
The incident is yet another example, the lawsuit says, of a Black person being confronted by law enforcement merely for going about his or her daily life “and doing nothing illegal.”
A spokeswoman for West Chester police declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. A Meijer spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The suit alleges unlawful detention and says Lindsay suffered humiliation, embarrassment and severe emotional distress.
Lindsay’s attorney, Fanon Rucker, described his client as a business professional whose mother, Dolores Lindsay, founded the Lincoln Heights-based Health Care Connection, which provides medical and dental care to people in need.
Essentially, Rucker said, the officers responded to a report of shoplifting, “saw a Black man, and they went to him.”
It’s very similar to other incidents in recent years during which police were called to investigate Black people who were doing nothing wrong, Rucker said.
In one local incident from 2018, a realtor and the man he was showing a house to were held at gunpoint and detained briefly by Cincinnati police officers. A neighbor had reported the house-showing as suspicious. A lawsuit surrounding that incident led to a $151,000 settlement with the city.
'It was a big mistake': Bodycam footage shows detainment of Black man in Meijer
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Lindsay says a Meijer manager was present while the officers questioned Lindsay. That manager, the lawsuit says, should have immediately realized that Lindsay wasn’t the white man they were looking for. The lawsuit says the manager “did nothing to prevent or stop the unconstitutional detention.”
The bodycam video also shows Lindsay telling the officers that he walked into the store several minutes after they did.
At one point, an officer tells Lindsay that the suspect was wearing a “tan” jacket – although the lawsuit says the jacket was described as being green. It’s not clear why the officer says that.
Lindsay, who was growing increasingly frustrated at being questioned by the officers, said loudly as he pulled at his jacket: “This isn’t tan. This is orange as (expletive).”
After being asked if he had “any items” concealed in his jacket, Lindsay responded: “Hell yes, I’ve got items in my jacket … The items I walked in here with – behind you guys.”
Eventually, Mitkenbaugh apologized to Lindsay, saying he matched the description they were given. He gave Lindsay his business card.
“I apologize. Truly,” Mitkenbaugh said. “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.”
The store manager later told Lindsay: “It was a big mistake.”
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