A Portland man is suing the owners and two employees of a Washington gas station convenience store alleging one of the employees repeatedly called him a racist slur and threatened him with a baton last year.
Anthony Simmons, 43, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, accusing the two Longview AM/PM store owners and now-former workers of violating a Washington law prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation based on race. He is requesting a jury trial, damages of at least $100,000 and attorney’s fees.
The lawsuit alleges a worker at the store referred to Simmons, who is Black, as “boy” when he refused to immediately move his truck out the store’s loading zone on Jan. 21, 2022.
Simmons told the worker not to be racist and she responded by repeatedly calling him a racist slur and threatening him with a baton outside of the store, the lawsuit alleges.
Another employee then called 911 and accused Simmons of assaulting both her and the other employee, the suit says.
Simmons had driven away from the store, but was stopped by Longview police several blocks away and feared he would be shot or killed by the responding officers because he is Black, according to the lawsuit. Police took a statement from Simmons and left when they determined no crime had happened.
Simmons suffered ongoing feelings of racial stigmatization after the encounter, the lawsuit states.
“It is inexcusable to be treated like this,” Simmons said in a statement released by his attorney.
The lawsuit accuses Anjana Sarad and Manoj Sarad, the two owners of the AM/PM, of failing to supervise, train or discipline the two employees named in the suit, resulting in Simmons’ emotional harm.
The two AM/PM employees, Audry McQueen, 35, and Shalleena Canizal, 33, did not immediately respond to emails from The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Anjana Sarad, 43, of Kelso said in a phone call Wednesday that she has not received a copy of the lawsuit yet and that McQueen used the slurs “in the heat of the moment.”
“It’s not OK, it just happens sometimes when somebody is in anger – when somebody assaulted you,” she said.
Anjara Sarad said McQueen and Canizal stopped working at the AM/PM more than a year ago and before she learned that McQueen had used the slurs. She said she would fire any future employee that used the same language.
Simmons had stopped by the AM/PM about 11 p.m. that day to pick up some napkins. He parked his Chevrolet truck in the store’s loading zone because it was too large to fit in other parking spaces, according to the lawsuit.
When Simmons entered the store, McQueen told him she wouldn’t serve him until he moved his truck, according to witness Jesse Weyland, 24, who was at the store at the time to buy cigarettes, according to the police report.
In a statement to police, Simmons said he told McQueen he was only stopping for some napkins and would leave. That’s when the two started arguing and began throwing things at each other, Weyland reported, according to the police report.
Canizal called 911 and said, “I have a Black man who is literally damaging my product” and reported that he assaulted McQueen and her by throwing shelving units at them, according to audio of the call provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive by Simmons’ attorney, Jesse Merrithew.
Canizal requested an ambulance for McQueen, whom she said had suffered a “severe” finger injury.
A woman can be heard in the background of the call yelling the same racist slur three times.
McQueen followed Simmons out of the store and pulled out a collapsible baton and threatened him with it, the lawsuit claims.
Longview Police Officer Hieu Ngo arrived at the store shortly after Simmons left and interviewed McQueen, whom he said was “not cooperative” and refused to give a written statement or be recorded on audio. McQueen described Simmons to Ngo using the slur multiple times, Ngo wrote in the police report. Canizal also declined to provide a written statement and ignored Ngo, the report states.
McQueen showed Ngo a small cut on the back of her right ring finger, which was not bleeding by the time an ambulance arrived. Paramedics wrapped gauze around her finger and left, according to the police report.
Simmons was several blocks away from the store when he noticed multiple police cars following him. He pulled over outside his auto shop and a white officer with his hand on his gun holster ordered Simmons to put his hands on the hood of his car, according to the lawsuit. Simmons told the officers he was the victim of a racist encounter, asked if he could wait inside the shop and got permission from the officers to go inside, the lawsuit states.
About 45 minutes later, a Longview police officer apologized to Simmons, telling him his treatment was not an “isolated incident” with that AM/PM and police left, according to the suit.
— Catalina Gaitán, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalingaitan_
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