‘It’s embarrassing,’ says Indigenous man who believes he was racially profiled at Winnipeg Home Depot

George Sinclair had just gotten into his vehicle and was ready to pull out of a Home Depot parking lot in Winnipeg this week when he was suddenly boxed in by three police cars, he says.

Sinclair, a 32-year-old Indigenous man, purchased a leaf blower at the Regent Avenue store around 11 a.m. Wednesday. He was shocked when police officers closed in on him.

“A cop came in my vehicle and grabbed me, and he said, ‘You’re under arrest for theft,'” Sinclair told CBC News on Thursday.

“I don’t even know what to think about it, because it’s embarrassing. Like, all these people were staring at me getting ripped out of my car.”

Sinclair said he was handcuffed and searched, adding one officer asked if his vehicle actually belonged to him.

The officers detained Sinclair in one of their vehicles, where he watched them examine his receipt. They spent less than 10 minutes looking at the receipt before letting Sinclair go, but they also ran his name to look for outstanding warrants after determining he paid for the leaf blower, he said.

“No apology, no nothing.… They still treated me like garbage after they were done with me,” he said. “It’s just upsetting because I did nothing wrong. I paid for my stuff.”

A spokesperson for Home Depot Canada told CBC News that they are aware of the incident and an internal investigation is underway.

Sinclair believes he was racially profiled, saying he was followed around the store “as soon as I walked in, based on my appearance, 100 per cent.” He wants an apology from the store and from police.

Winnipeg police said they arrested another man, a 33-year-old they described as a “prolific shoplifter,” in the Regent Avenue W. area on Wednesday, a news release said Thursday.

That man is accused of stealing over $10,000 worth of merchandise from several businesses between early September and late October, including some in the same area as the Home Depot, police said in the release.

CBC asked Home Depot Canada whether the store uses artificial intelligence in its video surveillance system, and if it had ramped up security in light of the prolific shoplifter, but the spokesperson said there was “no further information to provide at this time.”

Sinclair went back to the store on Thursday, saying staff told him police officers had been staged outside all day Wednesday.

He said he still doesn’t understand why or by whom he was flagged as a potential shoplifter, since staff members helped him take the leaf blower out of a locked display case and carry it to a cashier. Someone in plainclothes spoke with the police while he was in their car, he said.

The prolific shoplifter investigation doesn’t “give them the right to do what they did to me,” he said.

“They could have stopped me at the door. Why rip me out of the car? Treat me like a criminal? I don’t have a criminal record,” Sinclair said.

“I get it that there’s a lot of theft going on right now, but they could have [gone] about it a different way.”

Winnipeg police Chief Gene Bowers said he had no knowledge of the incident, when asked at an unrelated news conference Friday.

“If that gentleman wants to proceed, he can go through [the Law Enforcement Review Agency] or he can contact our professional standards unit, if he wants that looked into,” Bowers told reporters.

‘Humiliating experience’

Gregory Brown, a retired police officer and adjunct research professor at Carleton University who focuses on the relationship between police and the public, said Sinclair may have “very solid grounds” for a civil lawsuit.

“It’s a humiliating experience,” Brown told CBC News on Friday.

However, if he believes he was racially profiled at the store, that’s difficult to prove without “understanding the mentality of the store security personnel,” he said.

Brown also said it’s normal procedure for police to search a person’s name before letting them go, and he doesn’t take issue with the police putting Sinclair in the back of their vehicle before examining his receipt.

“But certainly the store security is going to have some serious explaining to do, I would suspect, in a court.”

There’s not much people can do to prevent being taken into police custody if they’ve been falsely accused of a crime, other than co-operate, Brown said.

“Tell them they’ve made a mistake. Don’t resist arrest. Just go along with it, and then … hire a really good lawyer,” he said.

“If you’re falsely arrested, the party that falsely arrests you is liable, civilly, for damages, which includes, you know, trauma, the public humiliation, damage to your reputation, [and] so on and so forth.”