Jacksonville mother sues Publix, claims excessive force against JSO officer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville mother, Tawanda Crowell, is suing Publix Supermarkets, Inc. after she was accused of stealing food and arrested by a JSO officer.

According to the complaint, Crowell is suing the company for negligence related to use of off-duty police officer, negligence of training and supervision of its manager, false imprisonment, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and slander.

The complaint states the incident happened on February 4, 2020. Crowell was with her 12-year-old daughter and her one and 13-year-old nieces. They were on their way to her son’s basketball game and stopped at a Publix on Jacksonville’s Westside for some food.

Crowell and her attorney, Steve Combs, spoke exclusively with Action News Jax reporter Elizabeth Pace. Crowell said she picked up a pre-made chicken and bag of rolls. As she was checking out, an off-duty JSO officer hired as security helped bag her items.

“I paid for my items with my debit card,” Crowell said. “There was a police officer in front of the register next to me and he said a couple of words to me.”

As Crowell left the store with her items, she said she noticed the same officer following her to her car. At this time, she was in the driver’s seat with three children in the back. The complaint states the officer approached her in a confrontational manner.

“He said an employee notified me that you were stealing,” Crowell said. “I said, ‘No sir I didn’t steal. I said you were just there and bagged my items.‘”

The complaint states, “The Officer, on account of the direction earlier given to him, sternly and angrily demanded Ms. Crowell to provide him the receipt. However, as an African American woman with a fear and distrust of the police, and given the angry disposition of the Officer, worries that the Officer might take the receipt from her and destroy it.”

“The next thing you know, he’s pulling me through my window,” Crowell said. “I’m like, ‘Hey what are you doing, what are you doing!’ So I pulled my arm back and said, ‘What are you doing am I under arrest?’ He never answered me. I said, ‘We can figure this out. Let’s just go back in.’ He said, ‘Do you have the receipt?’ I said, “Yes I have it, you just saw me pay for it and the cashier gave me the receipt.‘”

At this point, Crowell said her three kids are upset in the back of her vehicle while the officer is yelling at her. She said she got out of her vehicle slowly with her hands up, but then felt a sharp pain near her stomach.

“My daughter says, ‘Don’t shoot my mom!’ As I turned around I just felt something in my stomach.”

Crowell said she was then on the ground and felt another sharp pain in her back. She said she was tased by the officer.

The complaint states Crowell was held for more than six hours in the back of a police car in the Publix parking lot. During this time, it states Crowell requested to be taken to the hospital but was denied. Instead, she was offered treatment by Jacksonville Fire and Rescue while handcuffed in the back of the police car.

Since the taser hit Crowell below the waistline, she told Pace she wanted to be checked privately in the hospital by a licensed physician.

After several hours, Crowell said she was eventually taken to the hospital and then straight to jail in Downtown Jacksonville.

Crowell was not charged with theft. Police records show Crowell was charged resisting officer without violence to his or her person. She spent a night in jail, which later led to her termination with her employer at the time.

“I lost my job because of it,” Crowell said. “My daughter is scared. She’s having nightmares and stuff because when he pulled it (taser) out and she saw it. That was the first thing she said was don’t shoot my mom.”

Crowell’s Attorney, Steve Combs, requested the officer’s body camera footage, dashcam video and sally-port video of all officers involved in the incident. As of June 18th, JSO has not released any of the video.

“After we requested it, within about a week or two the State Attorney’s Office dropped the case,” Combs said. “They didn’t notify anyone that they dropped the case, they just silently dropped the case with no notification to anybody.”

“After that, an Internal Affairs complaint was filed on behalf of Ms. Crowell,” Combs said. “We received a letter back around May 1st basically stating that they had reviewed the camera footage and it did not reconcile with her allegation. So that has been six weeks ago and we still have not received any body cam video, dashcam video or other information we requested from the sheriff’s office. I think that speaks volumes.”

Last week, Action News Jax reported a new agreement between the State Attorney’s Office and JSO. Melissa Nelson said the State Attorney’s Office will determine the public release of body-worn camera footage in officer-involved shooting incidents.

Combs believes body camera footage should be released whenever an officer is accused of excessive force.

“I’m not saying that there isn’t some work that has to be done by the sheriff’s office to review the video,” Combs said. “For instance, the public records law makes certain video confidential if it’s inside a mental facility or if it’s inside somebody’s home. But at the end of the day, that same law requires that if you’re the subject of that video they should release it to you.”

Action News Jax reached out to Publix in response to the complaint and JSO for the body camera footage. At this time, neither has sent a response.

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