Rally demands answers after alleged shoplifter dies in altercation with Brooklyn Stop & Shop employees
FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The family of the man who died in a Stop & Shop supermarket April 14 says they demand justice and the release of the surveillance video from inside the store.
Bonezlee Nimmons, the victim's uncle, along with his attorney Sanford Rubenstein, Black Lives Matter, local clergy and community members picketed Saturday for what they are calling the "senseless death" of Ralph Nimmons.
Police said the 51-year-old from Brooklyn was leaving the store on Flatbush Avenue with groceries he didn't pay for when security tackled him at the entrance.
Witnesses said Ralph Nimmons claimed he had a heart condition and couldn't breathe. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Rubenstein said he wants Shop & Stop to release the surveillance video to determine exactly what happened in that Saturday morning. He said he also wants the employees to be prosecuted, as excessive force was used.
Now police are waiting for the Medical Examiner's Office to determine cause of death.
Shop & Stop released a statement:
"We offer our sincere condolences to the family of Ralph Nimmons. We are saddened by his death at one of our Brooklyn Stop & Shop stores on April 14. We have cooperated fully with the police and are continuing to do everything we can to aid their investigation."
The funeral for Nimmons will be on Monday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the English Bros. Funeral Home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
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