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Fast X star Tyrese Gibson is suing national home improvement chain Home Depot, alleging an instance of racial profiling. Specifically, the suit alleges that the 44-year-old actor “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling”
Gibson is suing for $1 million in damages, which he claims is the amount that he’s spent at Home Depot locations over the course of his lifetime. He also claims he’s been shopping at this specific Home Depot location for a decade.
According to the suit, two known associates of Tyrese attempted to use his credit card at a West Hills, California store earlier this year. When the cashier allegedly refused to let them use it, Tyrese — who was waiting outside in his car — entered the store to tell the cashier that the pair had permission to use his credit card.
Still, the suit alleges, the cashier refused to complete the trio’s attempted purchase and “gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating ‘store policy’ and demanded to see a form of identification.” Furthermore, the store manager was allegedly refusing to meet with Tyrese in person and only did so “after a significant heated discussion.”
The lawsuit also alleges 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.”
A portion of the clip uploaded to YouTube shows the actor on a FaceTime call with the cashier after he left the store as he tells the cashier: “I understand policy, but you know you’re being extra right now.” [via People]
Tyrese was most recently seen reprising his role of Roman Pierce in Fast X, which hit theaters back in May. Tyrese is one of the original members of the long-running Fast and Furious franchise, having first starred alongside the late Paul Walker in 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious.
In addition to his career-making role in the Fast franchise, Tyrese also had a significant role in Michael Bay’s Transformers movies and has also appeared in films such as Flight of the Phoenix, Four Brothers, Annapolis, Waist Deep, Death Race, Legion, Ride Along 2, and Morbius.