Video: Probe Launched After US Cop Demands Black Business Owner Prove He Owns His Store

Instagram/yemacalifVIRAL 0 10

A Black business owner says he was racially profiled after police in Tiburon, California, were caught on video demanding that he prove he owned his store, even though his photograph was displayed on one of the business’s walls.

According to local news station ABC7, Yema Khalif, the owner of the Yema clothing brand and store, was approached by local police at around 1 a.m. local time on Saturday.

In a video filmed by one of Khalif’s friends and shared on Instagram, an unidentified officer is seen asking Khalif to prove that he works at the store.

“This street closes at 9 o’clock at night and there’s never anybody in here. This isn’t regular business hours; there’s no customers in there. Is it your store? That’s all we want to know. I want to know what you’re doing in the store at 1 o’clock in the morning,” the officer can be heard telling Khalif.

“If I tell you it’s my store, then what?” Khalif asks.

“Then show me that it’s your store,” the officer responds.

“I do not have to show you nothing,” Khalif says.

In the video, the officer can also be heard saying: “You should be grateful that we’re being as diligent as we are to look out for the street. That’s all we do.”

The officer eventually leaves the store after a neighbor yells “That’s his store” at him.

In a statement to ABC7, Khalif revealed he, his wife and a friend were at the store late that night because they wanted to put out a “huge inventory” before Saturday morning.

A Tiburon police spokesperson confirmed to ABC7 that the town has hired an independent attorney to conduct an investigation into the incident.

“The Town is engaging the services of an outside, independent attorney to conduct an investigation of the incident involving a local business owner and Tiburon Police Officers on August 21 at 10 Main Street. At the conclusion of the investigation the report will be provided to the Town Manager for review and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings of the investigator,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to the outlet.

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