KY Mall incident prompts discussion on race
PADUCAH, Ky. June 12 2020 A concerned Paducah citizen discusses training for security officers and race relations after an incident caught on camera at a local mall.
On Saturday evening, while some teenager were waiting for their parents at the Kentucky Oaks Mall, a security guard says they sat on a flower pot and broke it.
The guard is seen on Paducah resident Tre’Shawn Dillard’s Facebook Live. But Dillard says he heard him racially profiling the teenagers.
“He was talking to a group of guys, one of the guys was a former security officer here, and he simply asks, ‘hey are you going to say something to them?’ ‘no, I’m just going to wait for them to do it again.’ So at that point, I felt those kids were being targeted, they weren’t loud, they weren’t cussing, they weren’t jumping on top of things,” he said.
A Kentucky Oaks spokesman says the security guard was just trying to escort them out because the mall was about to close.
“He wasn’t following them around. He was stationed at Center Court close to closing time, and that’s pretty standard stuff. He was opening some station gates so that some of the store owners and store employees could leave for the day,” said Joe Bell.
Dillard says he wants to change the stereotype of black people being watched while shopping.
“Things like communication skills, how to approach the citizens that you secure inside our public places, malls and Walmarts. So I told him that was something I was going to call and look up into,” he said.
Dillard, along with Paducah Police Department and the Mall security company, are planning to discuss race relations in the community.
“It shouldn’t matter about your skin color wherever you are. I don’t care whether you’re in the Cracker Barrel or the Walmart the mall, you should be able to shop in peace and have nobody hounding you,” he said.
Bell tells News 3 the security officers are trained to be polite and non-discriminatory. They have a previously scheduled training session taking place later in the month. Bell said it is expected to reinforce skills in customer relations and conflict de-escalation.
Additionally Dillard says he’ll join the Paducah Citizens’ Academy to further his awareness of the community.
