SANTA MONICA—A family who bought a basketball from the Santa Monica Nike Store has accused a store employee of racial profiling claiming they stole a basketball from the store on July 5.
TaMiya Dickerson, was at the store with Joel Stallworth, and their 18-month old son. Dickerson posted a video of the incident via Facebook that involved her family, the store employee and officers from the Santa Monica Police Department.
One of the family members stated in the video, “You refund his money and I want an apology, and it is profiling.” Throughout the video they are constantly telling police and the employee that they purchased the basketball, and provided a receipt as evidence of the purchase. The manager accused the family of stealing the ball as they walked out the retail store. The family returned the ball to the store and demanded a full refund.
“We are taking the recent situation at our Santa Monica store very seriously, and we are currently investigating the facts. We have reached out to the family to express our deepest apologies, and we will continue to work with our teams to ensure we deliver on our expectations for consumer experiences,” said Nike in a statement.
