Kam Chancellor feels that he was the victim of racial profiling last week when he inquired about buying an athletic facility that had closed its doors.
Two employees at the Redmond Athletic Club in Seattle called 911 after Chancellor and four others approached the gym. Chancellor said the men wanted to look around and take a few photos so they could discuss “our business plan” and consider purchasing the gym. He hinted in several tweets that he believes the two employees racially profiled him and his associates, and he spoke more about that in an interview with Tri-Cities radio 99.1.
“The first thing the lady did was look at us with an evil, devil look and shooed us off,” Chancellor explained, per Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times.
Chancellor added that it’s “just crazy how you have to go through that in 2016.” He said they told the two women they were just seeking more information about the business, but the employees kept their distance.
“(They) decided to stand 10 to 15 yards away behind a desk, saying, ‘Shoo, we’re going to call the cops,'” Chancellor said. “We were like, ‘What? Call the cops because we want information?’”
When police pulled Chancellor over five blocks from the facility, the Seahawks safety says the situation was easily sorted out. TMZ released a recording of the 911 call.
“They’re trying to get in and we’ve told them multiple times they need to leave,” the caller said. “I don’t know if they’re homeless kids … I know there used to be a lot of heroin addicts around here.”
The woman later told the dispatchers that the men are “bad news.”
Police said Chancellor was a “super nice guy” when they questioned him.
Unfortunately, Chancellor’s is not the only story we have heard of racial profiling. An NBA star claims he was a victim of something similar at a jewelry store last year.
