Tyrese Gibson and two others have filed a $1 million lawsuit against Home Depot claiming they “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and racial profiling” at a location in West Hills, California.
The incident occurred on February 11 when Tyrese went to Home Depot with Eric Mora and Manuel Hernandez, who “regularly provide construction services to Gibson.”
When fans began to notice the Fast X star, he returned to his vehicle and told the cashier Eric and Manuel had permission to use his credit card to complete the transaction.
According to the lawsuit, “the cashier refused to complete the purchase transaction.”
“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 a significant heated discussion with the cashier that Gibson was finally able to complete the transaction.”
The lawsuit says the Home Depot employee “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.”
A portion of Tyrese’s incident at Home Depot has been uploaded to YouTube.
The lawsuit also claims that Home Depot “has refused to take any responsibility” for the incident and that the company “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.”
Tyrese Gibson, Eric Mora, and Manuel Hernandez are seeking over $1 million in damages – to reflect the amount Gibson says he’s spent at Home Depot locations over his lifetime — in addition to punitive damages and “a declaratory judgment declaring that” Home Depot’s actions violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
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Source: People
