Renters say they were assaulted by men claiming to be apartment security guards
MEMPHIS, Tenn. June 9 2022— Punched, kicked, and hit with a baton. A Memphis man told FOX13 he was attacked and beaten by men who said they were security guards at an apartment complex in Fox Meadows.
It happened Thursday at the Highland Hills Apartments near Hickory Hill Road and Mount Moriah Extended.
The incident was captured on cell phone video.
Sedric Graves, the man at the center of the video, told FOX13 he did nothing to deserve the beating and said he’s pressing charges.
“Me and my friends were sitting in the car. We heard a woman scream. So, as a man, I ran around to see what was going on,” Graves said.
Graves told FOX13 the woman asked him to pick her phone up and call her auntie.
“And when I bent over to do that, that’s when I started getting assaulted by security,” he said.
The video shows three men who claimed to be security officers at Highland Hills Apartments fighting with Sedric Graves. Two security guards tackle him, knocking down a white fence in the process. While one hits him with a baton, another kicks him in the face several times.
“I was inside the house. I hear a whole lot of commotion. I go outside, turn around and get pepper-sprayed,” another tenant, Jon Jamison, said.
Graves and the woman in the video were not the only two who said they were assaulted. Jamison said he was as well.
“I really thought they were going to shoot them because some more folks, they ran off with their guns and told them to go back in the house,” said Jamison.
Graves is recovering from bruised ribs and has filed a police report.
“I want them to be held accountable for what they did,” he said.
FOX13 learned that the men claiming to be security guards might not have been licensed or even hired by the property manager as security, and they could face some serious charges.
We’re told the men claimed to work for Task Force Security Enforcement. That company has hired an attorney.
The security company owner did not want to talk on camera, but an attorney representing the company told FOX13 that the men do not work for the company and that the security company is looking to sue these men and the apartment complex.
“If what we are hearing is correct, those officers didn’t even work for the security company for which they portrayed themselves to be working for, so that’s an issue,” the attorney told FOX13.
The attorney said they weren’t hired by the property owner either, but a worker inside the leasing office.
“The apartment complex will not be able to separate themselves from the individual in the office who hired the security officers because she did so on behalf of the apartment,” he said.
While the security company and property owner may face lawsuits, the group of men may face criminal charges.
“From a criminal standpoint, it’s assault. It’s battery. You also have that in the civil context,” he said.
FOX13 went to the apartment’s leasing office to get answers about what led to the altercation.
A woman quickly ran to the door, locked it, and hid in an office.
FOX13 reached out to the property owner for a statement but has not heard back.
FOX13
