Who knew a banana could cause so much ruckus? According to a Florida woman, that piece of fruit nearly cost her father his life after police violently arrested him after he was accused of shoplifting from a grocery store.
Last Tuesday, 55-year-old Joseph Lee and his daughter, Anjelica, were at a laundromat near a Save A Lot in Lakeland, Fla. Angelica told NBC News she was washing her clothes when her father’s legs and arms began to cramp up because of an infection. To soothe the pain, he needed potassium so she said he walked next door to the Save A Lot to buy some bananas. Lee told his daughter he picked up four bananas and began to eat one on his way to the register. He said as he walked, he was being followed by a white woman employee who accused of stealing the banana he was eating.
By the time he got to the register, the cashier rang up three bananas and Lee informed the woman he wanted to pay for the fourth banana. However, even after paying, he claims the employee followed him outside and continued yelling at him. Anjelica says things escalated into an argument by the time he got back outside as she heard the commotion from feet away.
In defense of her father, Anjelica told reporters she grabbed a bat from her car and told the employee to pick on someone her own size. Then, the employee called the police.
Read what happened next from NBC News:
Eight cars responded with six officers and two sergeants, a police spokesperson said. When they arrived, Angelica Lee said, she was sitting in the driver’s side of her car with the door open and her father was standing outside the vehicle as they waited for her laundry to dry.
“The police got out with their guns drawn, repeatedly saying, ‘Get out of the effin’ car,’” Anjelica Lee said. “My dad said to me: ‘Don’t get out of the car until they can fully see you, because they’re going to shoot.’ And after he said that, nine or 10 of them jumped on him, and then they slammed him on the car.”
As a result of the incident, Anjelica said her father sustained an acute kidney injury and is undergoing dialysis. She told reporters he had already had a pacemaker. She’s been the main voice speaking on his behalf considering he’s been disoriented and unable to speak following the incident, she says.
Moving forward, she faces aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a law enforcement officer despite her claim she never hit anyone. She is also seeking the surveillance camera footage from the grocery store and body camera footage to plead her case.
Police maintain that Lee ignored the commands of the officers leading to his violent detainment. However, they also claim Anjelica went inside the grocery store knocking things off the shelves after threatening to beat up the employee.
Lee is lucky to still have his life. This incident is far too reminiscent of when a Black man in New Rochelle Ny. was apprehended by police after being accused of eating fruit from a supermarket without paying for it. He was fatally shot. Another Black woman, who was pregnant, was also fatally shot after being accused of shoplifting from a store in Ohio.
Things could have turned out a lot worse.