Fast and Furious actor Tyrese Gibson has sued Home Depot for $1 million. He’s claimed to have been “racially profiled” upon visiting their location in West Hills, California.
The lawsuit was reported via People. According to their report, in addition to Gibson, there were two male associates of his who “regularly provide construction services” to the actor, and all three allege to have “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling.”
As such, Gibson and the two other plaintiffs, Eric Mora and Manuel Hernandez, are now seeking $1 million in damages. The number was chosen by Gibson to “reflect the amount” that “he’s spent at Home Depot locations over his lifetime.” The lawsuit also includes punitive damages in addition to “a declaratory judgment declaring that” Home Depot violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The event was described as follows by People:
“The lawsuit alleges that when Gibson, Mora and Hernandez visited the company’s West Hills location on Feb. 11, the actor and musician decided to wait in his vehicle for the other two men to complete their transaction with his credit card when fans of Gibson began noticing he was in the store.
“Though the lawsuit claims Gibson told the cashier he would allow Mora and Hernandez to use his credit card to complete their purchase, it alleges ‘the cashier refused to complete the purchase transaction’ even after Gibson returned to the store.”
As further described in the newly-filed lawsuit:
“The cashier gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating ‘store policy’ and demanded to see a form of identification,” the lawsuit alleges. “The manager refused to speak with Gibson in person. It was only after significant heated discussion with the cashier that Gibson was finally able to complete the transaction.”
The suit further claims that the Home Depot employees “purposely interfered with and refused to process the transaction based on their groundless suspicion of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez arising from their skin color, and in the case of Mora and Hernandez, their national origin.”
Gibson claims to have shopped at this location for ten years, and that this was the first time he had issues with their alleged “policy.” Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Home Depot “has refused to take any responsibility” over the incident and that they’ve “doubled down, lawyered-up, and treated Gibson, Mora and Hernandez and what happened to them as not worthy of any due consideration – instead inferring that they are the problem.”
The lawsuit adds the following:
“Gibson, Mora and Hernandez are taking a stand against The Home Depot to hold it accountable,” the lawsuit reads. “The company needs to understand that there are consequences for discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling.”
People added the following statement from a Home Depot spokesperson:
“Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form,” the spokesperson begins
“We value Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns,” the statement continued. “We will continue to do so.”
The incident was also partially recorded in the following video:
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any potential updates regarding Tyrese Gibson and his lawsuit against Home Depot as we have them.