A 68-year-old Missouri woman has filed a lawsuit against four police officers and their suburban St Louis department after they were captured in a since-viral video beating and arresting her and her adult son over a claim that the pair had stolen a television. The allegation turned out to be false. All four officers are white; the mother and son are black. The lawsuit alleges that while Marvia Gray and her 43-year-old son Derek were attempting to get a refund for a television they had purchased at a Sams Club when the police officers grabbed them, throwing them to the floor, beating them, handcuffing them, then arresting them. Grays son, Derek Gray, bought the television on 23 March, but could not fit the 65in device into his SUV. The lawsuit alleges when he came back to retrieve it, employees falsely accused him of stealing it. He eventually managed to verify his purchase and take the TV home..... The beating and arrest were also captured by the surveillance cameras in the store.
Mrs Gray thought her son was about to be another black man unjustifiably shot and killed by the police, the familys attorney, Andrew M Stroth of the Chicago-based Action Injury Law Group, told the Associated Press. You can see in the video that she is terrified with respect to what theyre doing to her son.
The elder Gray suffered severe injuries to her tailbone, back, rotator cuff, knees and arms. The son shattered three front teeth, had a concussion and face injuries that required nearly 20 stitches and seven staples, according to the suit.