Officer Pulls Gun on Woman
Hello,
I wanted to submit my story to see if anyone else has been in similar situations with police officers where they haven’t been physically touched, and have had their lives threatened with a gun and what actually came out of it.
On February 25th 2010, I entered Shoppers Grocery Store in Largo, MD. Within two minutes of entering the store a male in regular clothes began to engage me for no valid reason. He made a comment of how I was standing in a grocery isle. I I told him that he didn’t need to engage me he became loud saying that I should turn my music down (I had earbuds but my music was turned off). We had an argument and when I told him that our conversation was over he followed me in the store and continued to harass me.
This is where I believe that that the store management and security is not necessarily at fault, but could have been more proactive because I later found out during police interrogation that the store manager was aware that two people were arguing in his store.
The store manager was questioned on the spot about whether or not he saw/heard anything, by Sergeant questioned him right in front of me. The store manager himself stated that he hear the yelling and arguing (even cursing on Davis’s part) but that he didn’t see anything.
The store (Shopper in Largo, MD) does not necessarily ‘owe’ customers protection when they enter the store but it is very strange that the manager admitted himself that he heard disorderly conduct between a male and female in his store in which he was managing and did not see fit to at least see what was was going on. That was his store and you would think that he would think that Shoppers would want their customers to have a pleasant experience in his store and I think that it is very unfortunate that he didn’t think to ‘intercede’. I am not blaming him or Shoppers for what happened but Davis should have been asked to leave the store before things had escalated for trying to become combative/argumentative with a woman he didn’t know (which had nothing to do with his status as a police officer) a male should not be allowed to come into a store and treat a woman, or any person like that. His behavior should have dealt with and his presence should have been removed from the environment so that people could have shopped in peace.
I had a younger brother (16) who was in another store in the shopping center. I told him to come into the Shoppers and shop with me because a strange guy was harassing me in the store. My brother had met up with some of his friends in the store so when he came to store he had a few of his friends with him. My brother asked me what was the issue and who had been giving me a hard time and I pointed at guy who had been harassing me. My brother asked the guy is there was a personal problem that the guy had with me, and he cursed at my brother, saying, ‘I don’t have s— to say to you’. He began to exit the isle and my brother stood in front of me blocking him from getting any closer to me. Without any notification he pulled out his gun on us, pointing it at my brother and one of my brother’s friends (14). We ran out of the store. I was unaware at the time but my brother had two other friends in the store waiting for him and when they tried to follow us he grabbed them. On our way home we received a phone call from stating that PG police had two of my brother’s friends and that they needed me to make a statement because the guy who pulled a gun us is an MPDC Forensics officer and told officers that he had a small argument with me (didn’t state that he was harassing me and following me) and that I called people up there to ‘threaten him’ and that’s why he pulled out his gun on us because he felt threatened by me(a 25 year old woman) and a 14 and 16 year old males. He also claimed he announced himself as a police officer but footage clearly showed us running from him like our lives depended on it. I returned to the store and told PG police exactly what happened. They took my statement, the officer’s statement. They concluded with giving me his name and badge number Tirik Davis #3296, giving me the opportunity to report his hostile behavior. I filed a complaint and he was exonerated, unfortunately the other kids who he unlawfully detained didn’t want to have anything to with it (probably because they know they didn’t do anything wrong,and weren’t arrested).
The officer’s Lt., not only exonerated him but told me it was my fault and she also said that he did nothing wrong and that the culpability lies with me. It’s interesting because the store manager himself said that he heard Davis yelling at me in the store and MPD disregarded that. I filed an appeal. During the appeal, Lt. of Investigative Services Bureau (a seperate department of MPD) looked into the incident and saw that he was clearly wrong and probably lying becuase it’s pretty impossible for an adult male to get into it with a woman in a grocery store unless he’s clearly crossing boundaries. He made recommendations to put Davis in an early intervention program and also put points of misconduct on his record because if he really had announced himself as an officer, we should have been under arrest for ‘resistint arrest’. He could clearly see Davis was lying.
Unfortunately Davis’s Commander, had the last say and overulled the recommendations, he was advised by Chief Lanier to talk to Davis about how his actions impacted the events so that it would never happen again. I found out from the Commander that this never happened he just ‘discussed’ what happened with him and did nothing to show Davis that he was wrong. His department also inflated the information that they had, during the first investigation they said they had one eyewitness and during the appeal they all of a sudden had several eyewitnesses.
When I spoke to the Captain of Internal Affairs, about this, his only response was ‘it must have been a mistake’. Another statement that Captain made to me that I thought was very strange was, ‘we know that the two of you had an argument. He (Tirik Davis) said that he got into an argument with you. The issue here is who was more aggressive’. I found his statement to be very strange because I know (based on Lt Michelle Milam’s statement) that MPD has only one eyewitness (and based on the fact that they later increased that number I don’t even know if the one eyewitness is ‘valid’ or even truly exists). The ‘eyewitness’ that they have did not see the beginning or even the majority of the altercation, meaning that they must have only seen a portion of the altercation.
MPD knows for a fact that the incident started with Davis approaching me because Davis admitted it himself. MPD also knows that Davis was loud and yelling at me because the store manager gave this information to PG police and all of that info must have been available to MPDC because there was a police report done. So if they do have a witness who may have seen me saying something to Davis then they know that it was in verbal defense of the hostility that was brought to me and I think it’s shame that the Captain of Internal Affairs would know for a fact that I did not start or cause the altercation, that I am a woman, and I didn’t have or draw a weapon (which Davis did and drew on us) and actually state that I was more aggressive, it’s disgraceful. I am now trying to sue Davis personally for intentional infliction of emotional stress/PTSD. Since the incident I haven’t been able to work nor rarely leave the house. I simply don’t feel safe because I should have been ‘safe’ in the grocery store. This person was in regular clothes and pulled out a gun on me and my brother, I thought he was going to kill us and for what? He knew that wasn’t right which is why he covered his tracks and said that he did follow protocol. Also, this incident had made me lose faith in the police department because I did nothing wrong. I am just a woman who was going about her daily business and a person who is supposed to have integrity used his position to get over on me for absolutely no reason. They tried to make it seem as it was my fault. I didn’t cause this, I had no weapon, and I I even tried to walk away from him and be the bigger person. MPD literally worked together so he wouldn’t have to face any consequences for harassing a woman and attacking minors. The biggest mistake I made was not seeking legal assistance from the begginning because he had a whole department to protect his bad behavior and I had no one to stand up for me (legally). I just recently accessed the police report becuase I am trying to sue Tirik Davis in court, the police department wrote the entire police report from his perspective and Tirik Davis slandered me by claiming I said things I never said and left out things that he said and did to me (i.e. yelling and following me in the store). This is a big mess and everything has unfortunately been set up to be in his favor.
