Confrontation at Calgary Superstore investigated as possible hate crime

Police investigate incident in grocery store lineup A disturbing confrontation at a northeast Superstore is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Kamil Karamali has the latest on the case…

An incident in the checkout line at a northeast Superstore on the weekend is being treated by police as a possible hate crime.

Police were called to the Sunridge Superstore at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday after two people got into an argument in front of a store full of shoppers.

The exchange was recorded by a witness and appears to have started after an employee accidentally rang in an item twice.

The customer became upset and another customer came to the cashier’s defence and that’s when the situation elevated.

CTV spoke to the man who recorded the video and he says the customer said several racial slurs to both the checkout clerk and the man who intervened including one where the customer threatens to physically assault both men and send them back on the boat they came on.

The video runs about 30 seconds but the witness CTV spoke to says the tirade lasted about five minutes and that there were several racial remarks that were not captured on camera. He says a manager stepped in and tried to check the customer out as quickly as possible.

“This went for about three to five minutes, it wasn’t a 30 second tirade, it wasn’t two comments, it was until the man exited the store,” said Steve Lemon, who caught the altercation on camera. “I’ve never seen somebody attack somebody so aggressively based on the colour of their skin.”

Police say they have seen the video and that it is too early to say if any charges will be laid.

“We don’t know the full story, it would be too early for me to say that charges are forthcoming because we need to know the full story. We do have that 30 second snippet on video, that is, obviously, some of the language is offensive and some of the gestures and what happens looks quite violent, but we don’t know what precipitated it or what happened before. So we need to get the full story so it would be too early to say if charges are pending,” said Staff Sgt. Paul Wyatt of the Community and Youth Services Section.

Wyatt says the man who appears to intervene in the video has not come forward to report the incident.

“Not to my knowledge, no. If that gentleman is out there and sees himself on television, obviously we’d like him to come forward to the Calgary police and tell his side of the story. Obviously, we’ve got one side from the video but we don’t know the full story at this point.”

Police say the video is helpful but that people should not put themselves in harm’s way to record incidents like this.

“There are ways and means that video can be obtained safely, we do not want the public to put themselves in any type of danger or jeopardy and engage in an instant like this. The video that was taken over the weekend was, obviously, he was at some distance from that incident and you could see him kind of peeking through the cashier till but I wouldn’t want people to get too close, to be honest with you,” said Wyatt.

Loblaws owns Superstore and officials issued a statement calling the incident ‘disgusting’ and say it ‘has no place in our stores.’

Police are looking at surveillance video at the store and the Diversity Unit is providing support to Superstore staff.