Shopping While Black: Second Customer Says She Too Is Suing Barneys And NYPD

Another Barneys customer “guilty” of shopping while Black has come forward. This time, it’s a 21-year old nursing student and mother from Brooklyn. Kayla Phillips says she bought a $2300 orange suede Céline bag from Barneys New York with her debit card — only to be accused of credit card fraud by police just blocks away from the upscale store.

LOOK: Engineering Student Arrested At Upscale Clothing Store For Shopping While Black

“Armed with a cash infusion from a tax return, she took her Bank of America debit card and headed to the Madison Ave. flagship store on Feb. 28,” the NY Daily News reports:

Phillips made the purchase without incident but says she was surrounded by cops just three blocks away, at the Lexington Ave. and 59th St. subway station.

“There were three men and a woman,” she recalled. “Two of them attacked me and pushed me against a wall, and the other two appeared in front of me, blocking the turnstile.”

The cops started peppering her with questions and demanding to see her ID.

“They were very rough,” said Phillips, who has filed a $5 million notice of claim with the city of her intention to sue the NYPD. “They kept asking me what I bought and saying, ‘Show us your card.’ I didn’t know what was happening.”

“They kept asking how I could afford this expensive bag and why had I paid for it with a card with no name on it,” said Phillips.

Phillips told the NY Post that the four undercover police detectives “attacked” her when she “was walking into the train station.”

Her story sounds very similar to the one The New Civil Rights Movement reported last night, of Trayon Christian, who is also reportedly suing the NYPD and Barneys.

//www.tout.com/embed/touts/ob3ecd

Video and screenshot via Kevin Fasick of the NY Post