Body camera footage shows a black Arizona man being surrounded by police after an Arizona bank manager called 911 on him for attempting to deposit a $3,200 check from the sale of his speedboat.
Almond Brewer, 32, had just decided to sell the boat to a woman he met on Facebook Marketplace and was trying to cash a check she had written him at the Pinal County Federal Credit Union’s Apache Junction branch in October 2021.
According to 12 News, the undisclosed bank manager ran Brewer’s check through a third-party verification process and it came back inconclusive, so they assumed it was fraudulent and called the police.
The manager, on the other hand, contacted the authorities before contacting the woman who wrote the check – and verified it with the bank while the police were on the way.
Bodycam footage acquired by 12 News shows that it took 10 minutes for the bank to notify the cops reacting to the call that the customer’s check had been authenticated.
The check had’red flags,’ according to the Pinal County Federal Credit Union, including an old credit union logo and a routing and account number that didn’t reflect their members’ information.
Brewer, a former college and professional basketball player, was profoundly affected by the incident.
“It was just, ‘oh, you know, Black guy locks in his hair, tattoos came on a Harley, you know, let’s assume the worst,’” Brewer said.
“Why embarrass somebody like that? Why, you know, make them feel less than a man,” Brewer asked.
The situation comes just days after bodycam footage of a similar predicament that included Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was released, in which he was momentarily arrested in January while attempting to withdraw $12,000 from his bank account at an Atlanta Bank of America.
