Innocent Teen Brutally Assaulted By Cops For Simply Withdrawing Money From ATM

Black Teen Brutally Assaulted By Cops For Withdrawing Money From ATM

An innocent African American teen was brutally assaulted and arrested by DC police who mistook his ATM withdrawal as a robbery attempt according to The Washington Post:

Jason Goolsby stood outside a bank on Pennsylvania Avenue SE on Monday evening pondering whether to withdraw money from the ATM. The teen said a woman pushing a baby stroller approached, and he held the vestibule door open for her.

The 18-year-old, who was with two friends, lingered about 20 seconds outside the Citibank near Eastern Market on Capitol Hill before leaving. Moments later, Goolsby said, he saw D.C. police cars racing toward him. One, he said, nearly hit him. The college freshman said he ran.

Goolsby didn’t know that he and his friends had been suspected of casing the ATM for a possible robbery. A caller to 911 reported suspicious youths loitering at the bank’s entrance and according to a transcript of her call made available Wednesday, said, “we just left but we felt like if we had taken money out we might’ve gotten robbed.”

What happened next is a sign of the power of social media to drive activism amid a climate of distrust of police and heightened concerns about racial profiling. Goolsby said an officer told him that the woman, who is white, called 911 because he had made her feel “uncomfortable.”

In an interview Tuesday, Goolsby said that he and the woman at the bank did not exchange a word. He said he paused after opening the door for her because he had just learned that a scheduled studio session had been canceled, and he was thinking about whether he still needed to withdraw money.