An Atlanta man has filed a lawsuit after he says he was beaten at a Walmart by an off-duty Atlanta Police officer – all over a tomato.
It stems from an alleged October 2014 incident at an Atlanta Walmart on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
According to the police report, around 8 p.m. on the 13th off-duty police officer Trevor King and a Walmart employee both allegedly observed 53-year-old Tyrone Carnegay place a tomato on the scale to weigh it, then put it inside a black bag. Both say Carnegay then walked past cash registers and exit the store.
The report says the Walmart employee approached Carnegay and asked him to return the tomato. When the man tied to push past the employee and King, a struggle broke out. Surveillance video from the store’s entrance caught the encounter.
Carnegay says he barely had time to react.
"Before I could do anything, he started beating me," he told 11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross. "He's giving a verbal command, but as he's giving the verbal command, he's beating the mess out of me."
According to King’s narrative in the police report, Carnegay tried to reach for his gun belt multiple times, so he used his night stick and hit him. The video shows King hitting Carnegay even after he goes to the ground.
"He grabbed me, he started beating my legs. Next thing I know, he had broken my legs, and he jumped on my back. And that was the end of the story," Carnegay said.
The officer was finally able to get Carnegay into handcuffs after the struggle. The report says King called for medical responders, who transported Carnegay to Grady Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg and other injuries. He now has a titanium rod in his leg.
After an investigation, it was determined that Carnegay did, in fact, have a receipt for the tomato.
Carnegay says he was in the store to buy items to make a sandwich, but after checking out and getting a receipt, he noticed the cashier had overcharged him for the tomato.
"I walked back up to her line, but her line had 10 people, so I thought, 'I'm not going to wait all day,'" he said.
So, Carnegay says he decided to replace the purchased one and go home.
While the criminal charges were eventually dropped against Carnegay, he says he never got an apology, or even an explanation from the officer.
His attorney says the whole situation is hard to even comprehend.
"It's tough to talk about this in reasonable terms because it was such an illogical and unreasonable situation," he said. "You would think the police would be trained better to at least begin with a dialogue or conversation."
Carnegay has now filed a suit for against King, the Walmart employee and the retailer for damages, false imprisonment and battery, court documents show.
Both Atlanta Police and Walmart say they have not recieved a copy of the complaint filed in the Fulton County Court system. But, Atlanta Police did acknowledge that they are aware of the incident and are looking in to it. They released this statement to 11Alive News:
The Atlanta Police Department (“APD”) is aware of a 2014 video between an off-duty Atlanta Police Officer and an alleged shoplifter at a Wal-Mart. The City has not been served with a lawsuit and a complaint was not filed with the APD’s Office of Professional Standards.
