Grocery clerk holds 11-year-old boy at gunpoint in store, alleges boy was stealing
Grocery clerk holds 11-year-old boy at gunpoint in store, alleges boy was stealing
An Atlanta grocery clerk has been charged with aggravated assault after he locked a young black boy he thought was stealing in the store and held him at gunpoint.
Big Brother Grocery worker Abhishek Dubey stopped 11-year-old Dylan Curate from leaving by locking the door with a remote and pointing a .22-caliber revolver at him shortly before 1:30am on Saturday.
When Curate was able to leave he told his mother, who reported the incident to police, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
A police report says Dubey told officers robberies were a major issue for the store.
‘In the past, Mr. Dubey advised that young kids had come to the store and stole multiple items by having one person hold the door while several others rush in to steal,’ police said, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Dubey, 27, claimed he watched Curate walk around the store before shouting, ‘hold the door’, to an older sibling.
Surveillance footage showed the 11-year-old was unarmed and had not stolen anything.
Curate’s mother, DeAngela Terriquez, said she was ‘extremely saddened and disheartened’, by the incident.
‘He didn’t do anything wrong. He just came to the store,’ Terriquez told WSB-TV.
She also detailed the encounter on social media in an emotional post, saying she feared her son would ‘be the next black boy killed because of racial profiling’.
‘Abruptly because the store owners assumed he looked like one of the many perpetrators that has stolen he unlawfully detained my son in the store and pulled a gun on him… my son screamed from fear,’ she Terriquez wrote.
Curate’s mother, DeAngela Terriquez (pictured), said she was ‘extremely saddened and disheartened’, by the incident
‘Somehow after the store realized that my son didn’t remotely match the description that was captured on video he released him.
‘I could have lost my son because of racial profiling… how do I console him today. What else do I say and do to protect him?’
There were protests outside the store after news of the incident spread.
Dubey was released from the Fulton County Jail on Monday on a $15,000 bond.
