Newly released body camera footage shows the moment a black Arizona man was surrounded by police after an Arizona bank manager called 911 on him for trying to cash a $3,200 check he earned from selling his speedboat.
Almond Brewer, 32, had just sold the boat to a woman he met on Facebook Marketplace and was attempting to cash a check she wrote him at the Apache Junction branch of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union in October 2021.
The unidentified bank manager reportedly ran Brewer's check through a third party verification system and it came back inconclusive - so they suspected it was fraudulent and called the police, 12 News reported.
However, the manager called the authorities before calling the woman who wrote the check – and verified it to the bank while the police were on their way.
Almond Brewer, 32, who is black, was surrounded by cops after an Arizona bank manager called the police on him while he was trying to cash a $3,200 check
Brewer had just sold the boat to a woman he met on Facebook Marketplace and was attempting to cash a check she wrote him at the Apache Junction branch of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union in October 2021
The unidentified bank manager reportedly ran Brewer's check through a third party verification system and it came back inconclusive
Bodycam footage obtained by 12 News reveals that it took 10 minutes before the bank informed the cops responding to the call that the customer had verified her check.
Brewer said he was shaken by the experience and feels like he was racially profiled. 'It was just, "oh, you know, black guy [with] locks in his hair, tattoos, came on a Harley, you know, let's assume the worst," ' he told the news outlet.
'Why embarrass somebody like that? Why, you know, make them feel less than a man. I haven't been inside a bank since,' he added.
Brewer, a former college and professional basketball player, said his own bank told him to take the check to the woman's bank to get access the money faster. When he gave the information to the credit union teller, however, he said she 'kind of looked surprised.'
The Pinal County Federal Credit Union told 12 News that the check had 'red flags,' including an old credit union logo and a routing and account number that didn't match their member's information.
The woman verified the check to the bank, but the manager only called her after calling the authorities
Brewer said he was shaken by the experience and feels like he was racially profiled
'If the manager believes the [check] to be fraudulent, it is within their discretion to involve local authorities in the interest of protecting our members from a financial loss,' Amy Marshall, president and CEO of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union, said in a statement issued in January.
'In this case, the call to authorities was based solely on the [check] presented. At no time did the staff feel threatened or feel Mr. Brewer was trying to rob the credit union,' she added.
Marshall noted that police were on their way to the bank when the manager received verbal verification hat the check was real.
Matthew Whitaker, who owns Diamond Strategies LLC and trains financial institutions how to avoid these kind of situations, told 12 News that the bank should have called their customer before calling the authorities.
'That person could've been called immediately before anyone called the police. So why escalate that at that point? [Brewer] was racially profiled,' he said.
Marshall said in her statement that the manager apologized to Brewer and the police, but defended the bank.
'Recently, we have seen an uptick in fraudulent activity and this situation echoed other scenarios throughout our other branch locations. Our ultimate responsibility is to ensure our members' accounts are safe and secure,' she said.
Marshall also noted that the bank employs a 'diverse workforce' and undergoes Diversity and Inclusion training annually, adding that they would be reviewing their processes.
'Mr. Brewer, on behalf of Pinal County Federal Credit Union, I would like to formally apologize for this confusing experience while visiting one of our branch locations,' she concluded.
The incident comes just days after bodycam footage was released of a similar situation involving Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who was briefly arrested in January while trying to withdraw $12,000 from his bank account at a Bank of America in Atlanta.
The incident comes just days after bodycam footage was released of a similar situation involving Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who was arrested after passing a note to a bank teller while trying to make a withdrawal
This is the note Coogler passed to the teller. It reads: 'I would like to withdraw $12,000 CASH from my checking account. 'Please do the money count somewhere else. I'd like to be discreet'
Coogler, 35, was mistaken for a bank robber after walking into the bank wearing sunglasses, a hat and a mask and asking the cashier to 'discreetly' make the withdrawal, after two others drove him to the bank in an SUV.
The incident occurred sometime in January but was revealed by TMZ last Wednesday morning. Coogler passed the cashier a note which read: 'I would like to withdraw $12,000 CASH from my checking account. 'Please do the money count somewhere else. I'd like to be discreet.'
It remains unclear why he needed the money, or why two others had driven him there in an SUV to retrieve it.
The cashier, who was described in the police report as a 'pregnant black woman,’ said the note concerned her so she called police claiming Coogler was a bank robber.
Police arrived and detained two people who were waiting for him in an SUV parked outside.
TMZ reports that they then went inside the bank and placed Coogler in handcuffs too, but lety him go on realizing that it was a misunderstanding.
Coogler, who lives in California, was furious about the mistake and demanded the badge numbers of the cops involved, according to the report.
'This situation should never have happened. However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on,’ he told Variety last week.
A Bank of America spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'We deeply regret that this incident occurred. It never should have happened and we have apologized to Mr. Coogler.'
Despite authorities determining the incident was a misunderstanding, the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP told CBS 46 they believe Coogler was racially profiled.
'The presumption is always that they’ve done something wrong, he’s here to rob us,' Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta NAACP Branch, told the TV station. 'He can’t be here to withdraw money that’s his.'
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