Tyrese Gibson sues Home Depot for $1M over alleged racial profiling incident
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Tyrese Gibson is suing Home Depot after an alleged racial profiling incident at a Los Angeles-area store earlier this year.
According to a complaint filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court, the Fast and Furious actor visited a Home Depot store in West Hills, Calif., with two associates on Feb. 11, and the trio "experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling first-hand."
Gibson and his associates, Eric Mora and Manuel Hernandez, are seeking $1 million in damages — the amount Gibson estimates he's spent at the home improvement company over the years — as well as statutory damages, attorney's fees, punitive damages, a declaratory judgment declaring that Home Depot's actions violated California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and "such other relief as the Court may deem just and proper."
A Home Depot spokesperson said in a statement to EW, "Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form. 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. We will continue to do so."
Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Tyrese Gibson
Gibson's complaint, which EW has reviewed, alleges that during a prolonged checkout, due to a "purported glitch in the system," fans began to gather, noticing Gibson. Not wishing to cause a disturbance in the store, Gibson decided to leave and wait in his car while Mora and Hernandez completed the transaction.
The complaint says at this point Gibson told the cashier of his plan, and that his associates would be using his credit card, to which the cashier "acknowledged Gibson and said he understood." Then, the lawsuit claims, "Gibson asked the cashier if the cashier needed anything further from him to complete the transaction. The cashier said no, and that Gibson could leave."
At this point, the cashier allegedly continued to refuse to complete the transaction, even after Gibson used FaceTime and later returned to the store to sort things out. "The cashier gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating 'store policy' and demanded to see a form of identification," the complaint says. "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 complaint adds, "The actions of the cashier and manager were discriminatory based on race and origin. There is no other plausible explanation for the mistreatment of Plaintiffs. The transaction was refused, despite Gibson's repeated authorizations, because of Plaintiffs' skin color and, in the case of Mora and Hernandez, also because of their national origin. This is a clear and deplorable instance of discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling. The treatment of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez by The Home Depot was humiliating and demeaning."
Representatives for Gibson didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment on the lawsuit.
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