Michigan Black teen who evaded cops after beating Macy's employee over N-word arrested for 'unprovoked attack'
FLINT TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN: A Black teenager who was filmed attacking a white department store employee after claiming he used the N-word has been arrested and charged after evading police for almost a month. Damire Canell Palmer, 18, of Mount Morris, was taken into custody on Thursday, July 9, 13 days after he was formally charged with intent to do great bodily harm in connection to assaulting a 50-year-old employee at the Macy's in Genesee Valley Center in Flint Township, according to the Detroit News.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported how the entire incident, which took place on June 15, had been filmed by Palmer's brother, rapper FT Quay, and posted on his Facebook account. The post has since been deleted.
In the video, Palmer could be seen punching the employee in the face without warning. The employee immediately asks, "What are you doing that for?" and tries to extend his arm to protect himself but is punched again, with the 18-year-old yelling at him for touching him. The employee then tells him, "I didn't touch you... I'm sorry" and is punched a few more times before the clip abruptly ends.
After the incident went viral on social media, Quay said that his brother attacked the employee after a brief conversation where they asked the employee if a shirt they were looking at was too small in size. He claimed the employee said "yes" and then continued talking on the phone, where he told someone that he was interrupted by "no one, just some n*****".
While the moment the employee allegedly uttered the n-word was not caught on camera, Quay insisted in an interview that he had heard the man use the slur and that his brother's reaction was a "spur of the moment."
"We made a petty joke and asked the guy was the shirt too little when he could’ve asked me. He was just being funny. And just the fact of the remark that he said that we all heard. And just, what else were we supposed to do? In this age and time, he didn’t know what else to do. That was just his instinct," Quay said.
However, Macy's said in a statement that they had reviewed all the evidence from the evening and found that the incident was an "unprovoked attack". They said they were working with local authorities to bring the culprit to justice.
In a press conference announcing charges against Palmer on June 26, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton sided with Macy's and said investigators had failed to uncover evidence of provocation or racial comments.
The incident even caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who tweeted the footage of the attack and wrote, "Looks what’s going on here. Where are the protesters? Was this man arrested?"
"This was an unprovoked attack on a Macy’s employee," Leyton confirmed. "This behavior, as seen in the video, is unacceptable, it is criminal and it cannot be allowed. We don’t believe any racial slur was made by the store manager, and even if there had been, it does not condone nor justify the assault by Mr. Palmer."
Palmer was arrested on suspicion of felony assault and misdemeanor retail fraud. He is currently in custody on a $200,000 bond and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Quay has not been charged.