An Indianapolis man believes he was the victim of racial profiling after he says a woman demanded he leaves the pool at the apartment complex where he lives.
Shayne Holland, who is Black, said he was lounging near the pool at the River Crossing Apartments last Friday when he was confronted by a white a woman who demanded to know where he lived and eventually told him to leave.
“She didn’t introduce herself, she didn’t say hello,” Holland told local station WRTV 6. “She says, ‘Do you live here?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I live here, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t live here.’”
Holland said the woman, who he later learned was an off-duty police officer, pressed him further and demanded to know exactly where he lived.
“I’m like, ‘I live over there, but if you’re asking me for my address, I mean, I don’t feel comfortable giving you my entire address without knowing who you are,” he said.
The young man said he showed the woman his key fob, which he used to gain access to the pool area, and she snatched it from his hands. Not long after, the property manager came outside but failed to de-escalate the situation by identifying him as a resident. This is despite the fact that Holland says he and the manager know each other and speak at least twice a week.
The manager still asked him to leave, however.
“Honestly, I don’t want to jump to racism,” he told the station. “I don’t want to say she just pointed me out because I’m the only black dude in the pool, but that was the case.”
Holland, who captured much of the incident on his cell phone, said he’d now like an apology from the woman, who never identified herself as an officer, as well as an apology from the apartment management.
In a statement to FOX 59, Barret and Stokely, the company that manages the complex, said it hired the officer after several incidents of trespassing at the pool and said it failed to inform residents that officers would be on hand to check IDs.
A complaint has since been filed against the unnamed officer while the property manager was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
“If you need to have somebody make sure that it’s safe and make sure that there are not too many people that don’t live at the pool, I don’t mind that,” Holland said. “Just let me know that. I don’t think that they did that and I think that could have solved it.”
