A Hampton Inn employee in North Carolina was fired for calling police about a black woman who was a hotel guest and was enjoying the pool with her two children.
The woman, who passes for Missy Williams-Wright on Facebook, said she was staying at the Hampton Inn in Williamston, about 110 miles east of Raleigh, on business. In a Facebook Live video on Friday, she said she was in the pool when asked by an employee about being there, but did not question two white people who were there.
Williams-Wright is black and the worker appears to be white.
“I feel like it’s discrimination,” Williams-Wright says in the nearly 10-minute video when two officers approach her. “I have a room here and I told him so.”
The Williamston Police Department said in a statement that officers were called to the hotel to report a person who entered illegally. Hotel staff said two children were in the pool unattended and that Williams-Wright was sitting in her car in the parking lot.
“Hampton Inn staff reported that they asked the adult to see if they were hotel guests and the adult declined to provide their name and room number,” the statement read. “Hampton Inn staff advised that the adult be told to leave the facility and called the police.”
During the exchange, one of the officers asks Williams-Wright for her name and room number, but she says she won’t give it to them because she did nothing wrong.
“I am the only black person here in this group, they want to question me,” she says. “But it was two Caucasian people sitting there and she didn’t say anything to them. So she goes and calls the police officers.”
“She said to me, ‘Oh, because there are always people like you who use the pool without authorization.’ Who are people like me? Williams-Wright says.
The video, which has been viewed more than 900,000 times on Facebook, ends with her and her children leaving to go to their room. Wiliams-Wright was not available for comment Tuesday.
Police said officers removed the woman’s license plate and determined that she was a guest at the hotel.
Hilton, the owner of the Hampton Inn, released a statement on Twitter saying the employee was fired.
“Hampton by Hilton has zero tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind,” said Shruti Gandhi Buckley, Global Head of Hampton by Hilton.
“We apologize directly to the guest and their family for their experience, and we will work with them and the hotel to do this well. We stay in touch with hotel property about follow-up actions and to ensure that, in the future, their Employees reflect the best values of our brand and are welcoming to everyone. “
