In a recent incident at a Target store, a security guard has been accused of assaulting a female shopper after she demanded that her $1,000 bill be paid as reparations.
According to the Daily Mail shocking video footage revealed the moment Security staff member Zach Cotter, 28, hit Karen Ivery, 37, at Target in Blue Ash, Hamilton County, Ohio, after she grew ‘aggressive’ with a manager.
CCTV footage from the store shows Mr Cotter intervening after an altercation broke out with a manager when Ms Ivery claimed she wanted the store to pay for her purchases in ‘reparations’.
Target security guard punches customer in the face after he demanded ‘reparations’ https://t.co/Zi1r1kHApI pic.twitter.com/s6y85bQotv
— New York Post (@nypost) April 12, 2023
Mr Cotter claims he was acting in self-defense, and told officers after the incident that she ‘charged’ at him. She was later arrested for Menacing and Disorderly Conduct.
A police report seen by Dailymail.com said: ‘Ivery was very argumentative and confrontational about the whole incident. She was confrontational with officers on scene and didn’t want to explain her actions that evening.’
According to the manager’s statement after the incident, a cashier called her over when Ms Ivery asked for her grocery bill of over $1,000 by being covered by reparations.
She claimed Ms Ivery said she had a ‘privileged life’ and that she was ‘owed this’.
The manager said that if she wanted a donation, she would need to call in the morning. She claimed this caused her to become verbally aggressive.
CCTV footage from the store shows the woman walking forcefully towards the manager, which led her to put her hands up and back into a nearby counter.
Mr Cotter can then be seen running across the store to interrupt the altercation.
He reportedly told her to calm down, before video footage shows her backing him into the security office.
Inside the office, he continues to back away as Ms Ivery walks towards him.
Mr Cotter then punches her in the face, causing her to crash to the floor and her belongings to scatter around the room.
The footage then shows him using his cell phone to call the police.
In bodycam footage from an officer at the scene, Mr Cotter said: ‘I told her she needed to back up or leave. She started charging at me.
‘I came all the way back into my office, into an enclosed space, and I hit her in the face. I have it all on video.’
After being asked if she is OK by the officer, Ms Ivery replied: ‘Physically I am OK. Emotionally I am very, very angry.’
After being told to stop talking by an officer, she said: ‘Do you know who I am? Clearly you don’t know who I am.’
Later in the bodycam video, when she is asked by an officer about the incident, she said: ‘I was asking the cashier to ‘reach out to her manager so we could have a larger conversation about how money works, and how provision works, and how it’s been working in our community in a very wrong way.’
‘This is my Rosa Parks moment,’ she added.
A police report from the incident said: ‘After watching the video footage we determined that Ivery was the aggressor’.
Ms Ivery was sentenced to one day in confinement and charged $110 for Disorderly Conduct.
