Tyrese has had enough from Home Depot and has proceeded with the motion to sue the home repair store as he claims that he had “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling” during his visit back in February.
He is seeking $1 million as he states that this will reflect the amount he’s spent at Home Depot over his lifetime along with punitive damages due to the store’s actions violating California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The lawsuit alleges that when Gibson, Mora and Hernandez visited a West Hills location on February 11, Gibson decided to wait in his vehicle for the transaction to be completed by Mora and Hernandez after he noticed that fans began to notice his presence in the store.
The lawsuit also says that “the cashier refused to complete the purchase transaction” even after Tyrese came back inside.
“The cashier gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating ‘store policy’ and demanded to see a form of identification. The manager refused to speak with Gibson in person. It was only after significant heated discussion with the cashier that Gibson was finally able to complete the transaction.” The lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit also stated that the store’s employees “purposely interfered with and refused to process the transaction based on their groundless suspicion of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez arising from their skin color, and in the case of Mora and Hernandez, their national origin.”
Since the lawsuit, Home Depot has released a statement to PEOPLE where they said that they have reached out to him on different occasions.
“We value Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns. We will continue to do so.”
