Michigan authorities have charged an 18-year-old black man with the “unprovoked” video assault of a white Macy’s manager, authorities said.
Damire Palmer, of Mount Morris Township, faces one count of serious assault with the intent to do much less bodily harm than murder in the June 26 attack on the employee inside the Flint department store. Palmer is still in the wind.
“This was an unprovoked attack on a Macy’s employee,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in a statement. “This behavior as seen in the video is unacceptable, it is criminal and it cannot be allowed.”
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Damire Palmer, of Mount Morris Township, faces one count of serious assault with the intent to do much less bodily harm than murder in the June 26 attack on the employee inside the Flint department store.
(Flint Township Police Department)
Contrary to initial claims, police and prosecutors found no evidence that Palmer assaulted the employee after he allegedly used the N-word, authorities said.
“We don’t believe the store manager has made any racial slurs,” Leyton said.
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In a surveillance video that prosecutors obtained from Macy’s, Palmer walks through the store, then approaches the manager from behind and hits him on the head, knocking him to the ground, authorities said.
While the manager is on the ground, Palmer hits him, the images show, according to authorities. Palmer then leaves the store with his brother.
In cell phone images that went viral, the Macy’s employee is shown wearing a mask and talking on a cell phone when a black man hits him from behind and falls to the ground. “Why are you doing that?” the manager asks and then tries to crawl away. “Sorry,” says the clerk, crumpled to the ground, before Palmer hits him two more times.
Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to support a hate crime charge.
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If convicted, Palmer faces up to 10 years in prison. Authorities do not plan to charge his brother, who allegedly filmed the attack, as they do not believe he has committed a crime, a source told The Post.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.
