They Spent $1K While Shopping. Then Came the Security Guard

A white Indiana police officer has lost two jobs—one on the force and another as a store security guard—after he was seen targeting black shoppers in a viral video. Cousins Aaron Blackwell and Durell Cunningham were filming Nov. 12 as Nordstrom Rack security guard Daryl Jones, also a Lawrence Township deputy constable, approached their car after they'd spent more than $1,000 at the store north of Indianapolis, per the Washington Post. "You're acting suspicious," said Jones, who'd reportedly watched the men as they shopped and then tried to take down their license plate number. Told he didn't have the right, Jones replied, "I got my rights to do anything I want to do, I'm a police officer." He then threatened to have the pair arrested if they didn't show ID.

An Indianapolis police officer eventually arrived, spoke to the cousins, then took Jones aside. Returning, he said, "I don't think either of us have any reasonable suspicion to believe there's a crime taking place ... so there's no legal requirement for you to identify yourself." Lawrence Township Chief Constable Terry Burns tells NBC News that he fired Jones, a 20-year veteran of the force, within two hours of viewing the video posted Nov. 13, now seen more than 360,000 times. Staff at the store say Jones no longer works there, either. The fight isn't over for Cunningham, however. "This is not just about me or my cousin, or even just this city. It's about how things have been and how things cannot continue to be," he says in a video shared Monday, per the Post. "We're going to fight for everybody." (More racial profiling stories.)