By
Andrew Siff/ NBCNewYork.com
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Trayon Christian, a 19-year-old college
student from Queens
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A 19-year-old college student from
Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350
designer belt at Barneys on New York's Madison Avenue because he is "a
young black man."
Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday
that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo
belt at Barneys.
When he went to the store to buy it in
April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the
sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a
block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford
to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed
Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Officers hauled Christian to the local
precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card
and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.
Police still believed Christian's
identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was
his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was
released.
He told NBC 4 New York that questions
were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of
being handcuffed and taken to a cell.
"Why me? I guess because I'm a
young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably
thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think
that black people don't have money like that."
He later returned the belt to Barneys
because he says he "didn't want to have nothing to do with it."
He is suing the city and the luxury
department store for unspecified damages as a result of "great physical
and mental distress and humiliation."
Christian's attorney, Michael Palillo,
told the Post, "His only crime was being a young black man."
Barneys said in a statement Wednesday
that none of its employees was involved in any action with Christian other than
the sale, and added that the store "has zero tolerance for any form of
discrimination."
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