A couple of days ago a video from the JCPenney at the UP Mall here in Mishawaka, IN went viral. It shows a loss prevention officer in an altercation with a young woman. Predictably, there are calls of outrage, and racism based on this report from WNDU:
I’ve been in media long enough to know when a story is missing some major elements, and is being steered in one direction. Naturally, I was skeptical the narrative one gets from this report is the full, accurate picture of what happened.
When the story broke, I posted it on my Facebook page. Listener reaction was swift. They didn’t see anything wrong with the conduct of the officer, and all assumed a lot was missing from the story.
Shortly after I posted the story on Facebook, the loss prevention officer contacted my station (95.3 MNC) to let us know he wanted to do an interview with me when he was allowed, but at that time he was forbidden from talking to the media.
On Thursday afternoon I came into work, and was told there were people waiting for me. It was Troy, the officer you see in the video above.
He’d been fired by JCPenney, and was now free to talk to me.
He provided me with a brief rundown of his version of events, the JCPenney report, the Mishawaka PD case number, and some videos on Facebook uploaded by the other party in the incident. I did the interview the next day, Friday morning.
This interview is his version of events so he can get his side of the story out there, and people can make an informed decision about what happened.
I also spoke with Mishawaka PD who stated to me that based on the police report, and several witnesses, it would be likely that the girl in the video would face charges. That decision, however, was up to the prosecutor.
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