Update: Metro PD confirmed to The Daily Caller that they are treating the incident as a “suspected hate crime.”
A female security guard working at a Washington, D.C. grocery store was arrested Monday afternoon for physically escorting a man out of the women’s restroom after he refused to leave because he identifies as a woman.
The shopper — a young, African-American male who identified himself as Ebony Belcher to local news outlets — reportedly passed the security guard on his way into the women’s restroom at a Giant grocery store in Northeast D.C.
After seeing Belcher walk into the women’s restroom, the security guard followed him in and ordered the man to leave. When he refused, the security guard had to physically escort him out of the women’s restroom.
Upon leaving the store, Belcher called police to have the security guard arrested. D.C. police confirmed to NBC4 Washington that the woman was arrested and charged with simple assault. D.C. police told TheDC that they are treating the incident as a “suspected hate crime.”
Belcher told NBC4 that the security guard told him: “You guys cannot keep coming in here and using our women’s restroom. They did not pass the law yet.”
He told WJLA that he believed “the woman had no reason to put her hands on me,” adding that he was emotionally traumatized by the incident. “I’m hurt by this. It’s terrible… I’m distraught,” he said. “People should not be discriminated based on their gender identity.”
At least one woman was grateful for the security guard’s actions. Shopper Deana Chisholm told WJLA: “If you was born a man go to the men’s bathroom. You got a penis go to the men’s bathroom. If you are born a woman go to the woman’s bathroom. Period!”
