A video uploaded to social media shows a visibly Indigenous 16-year-old girl being surrounded and detained by six security guards at a shopping mall in Surrey, B.C.
The guards eventually force her to the floor. One has their knee in her back and neck.
“What are you doing to her man,” one person can be heard shouting on the video. “You’re hurting her.”
According to the family, she was with two non-Indigenous friends at the time. But the security guards only stopped to question her about stealing from one of the stores.
The girl, who APTN News is not identifying, said she showed the guards the inside of her purse. Still, she said, they followed and restrained her.
“They had me outside first then they brought me inside and that’s when all the other security guards came and all cornered me,” she said. “And that’s when I started feeling like I was being trapped. I felt really cornered. I felt really claustrophobic being surrounded by all these security guards…and that made me feel like not human and being pinned to the ground by all these security guards after I showed them I had nothing.”
She said there were moments when she was on the ground that she couldn’t breathe.
“When they had their knee on my neck I felt really suffocated,” she said.
The incident lasted for about 10 minutes, the girl said – then police showed up.
According to a statement from the Surrey RCMP said police were called to the mall on Nov. 12 after a report of an assault and a female had been detained.
“Our officer attended and arrested the suspect female for assault. According to the mall security the female allegedly spat toward a security guard and was subsequently detained. The suspect who is a youth was released at scene to their guardian.
“Investigation is ongoing and all aspects of what transpired are being looked at,” the statement said.
The girl’s mother says her daughter was not arrested or charged. She said she believes her daughter was racially profiled and has a message for the security guards.
“Shame on you guys. You guys are grown big men there is no need to be handling anybody like that or even put your hands on anybody at all! Like it’s very shameful.”
Sino General is the girl’s stepfather. He says she’s traumatized by the incident.
“They [security guards] should have de-escalated – they didn’t – so that was an assault, that was forcible confinement, public mischief because they singled her out as being Indigenous,” he said.
APTN News reached out to Paladin Security for comment but no one responded.
