A trio of African-American friends, including Donisha Prendergast who is the granddaughter of Bob Marley, had finished their vacation at a home in Rialto on April 30. When they locked up the house and put their luggage in their car, a 911 caller told police that the women were burglarizing the home. The friends then found themselves face-to-face with several police officers during a 22-minute encounter that has received national attention. The friends—Prendergast, Kells Fyffee Marshall and Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan—posted a social media video of portions of what happened as a result of the police call that falsely labeled them as criminals.
Prendergast and her two friends also served a notice of pending legal action to the Rialto Police Department Monday (May 7), police said in a release.
Rialto Police@RialtoPolice
Here’s what else we know about the encounter:
Police Have Released Body Camera Footage And Statements
The Rialto Police Department held a press conference Monday about the incident, revealing footage that showed a different version of events. The footage showed a more light-hearted interaction between the three women and officers. The move to quickly release the police video is being deemed as an action to refute racial discrimination on the part of the involved officers and show that they didn’t act with excessive force. The video release raises questions as to why body camera videos are not released faster in other nationally known racial discrimination incidents, brutality encounters or fatal police shootings.
Leticia Juarez@ABC7Leticia.@RialtoPolice release bodycam video from encounter with @Airbnb guests. A neighbor called police to report suspicious activity. Three of the guests are black. They are claiming racial profiling & plan on filing a lawsuit. The story at 5pm on @abc7
