Black clothing store owners cleaning looted shop say 15 cops came to question them
A Georgia business owner said police did little to deter vandals who left his luxury clothing store looted and destroyed during protests over the death of George Floyd last week.
“They just stole everything,” Zola Dias, owner of the ATTOM Concept store in Atlanta, told ABC News after his business was ransacked Friday.
The next day, Dias said he and a group of friends were confronted by more than a dozen officers as they worked to repairwhat was left of the shop. Apparently, someone had reported the store was being vandalized again, he told the outlet.
“I was traumatized,” Dias said. “I was with three black men and 15 police come to us and they’re thinking I was trying to vandalize my own store.”
The shop owner said the experience was a “double shock,” adding, “I cannot even speak.”
The Atlanta Police Department received a 911 call about 5:15 p.m. Sunday “about people inside the ATTOM store,” a police spokesman told McClatchy News.
“Police responded and found that it was the owner of the business cleaning up from the damage of the night before,” the spokesman said, adding that officers remained at the business for about 20 minutes before leaving to assess other damage in the area.
Protests demanding justice for Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died when a Minneapolis police officer pinned a knee to his neck for several minutes, were largely peaceful until a smaller group began to damage local businesses in downtown Atlanta and Buckhead, the upscale community where Dias’ store is located.
Business partner and ATTOM store manager Kris Shelby told The New York Times he watched social media video of vandals of all races cleaning out the store, making off with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise through the shattered front window.
He said “blood, sweat and tears” went into building the business, which has drawn celebrity clientele like rap trio Migos and even supplied clothing for Marvel’s 2018 blockbuster “Black Panther,” according to the newspaper.
“It hurt. It seriously hurt,” Shelby said of Floyd’s death. “But as a black man, and this is a black-owned business, it’s just sad. It really leaves a bad taste in our mouths, to be honest.”
Dias and Shelby said they believe the group that damaged their store was there only to wreak havoc rather than support a just cause. Now, the businessmen say they’re unsure if their clothing store will ever reopen.
The men had already suffered losses due to the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19, which caused the shop to close temporarily, according to FOX News.
“Insurance doesn’t cover everything,” Shelby said Monday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “And to be honest right now we don’t even know if insurance is going to cover anything.”
Their recent run-in with police only added to their stress. Shelby said they’ve been in the space for four years now and don’t understand why anyone would call the cops.
“I mean at the end of the day, we understand, but it’s like what was this all about?” Shelby asked, according to Fox News. “Is it because we’re black-owned and from the looks of it because of what’s going on right now someone is like, ‘They must be some African Americans sitting down there breaking into the store?’”
“For them to walk up on us 15 deep, 15 police officers deep with everything they got going on in the city right now, the last thing you all need to be worrying about is if a few guys are sitting here making sure their store is being taken care of and being boarded up,” he added.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched for the business and has raised over $52,000.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 2:10 PM.