Minnesota Man Fired From Job After Mall Of America Protests
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minnesota man says he can no longer work after being arrested during a Black Lives Matter protest at Mall of America.
More than 900 people have signed an online petition, asking that Tadele Gebremedhin be allowed to go back to work at the mall's Microsoft store.
He says he got inadvertently caught up in the protest on December 20, where he was arrested and banned from the mall for a year.
Mall security, however, says Gebremedhin helped lead the protest, and he's being treated the same as everyone else arrested on mall property that day.
As many as 2-thousand people protested at the Mall of America on December 20, upset about deaths of black men at the hands of police. They briefly shut down the mall on one of its busiest days.
"Do I support the movement? Yes, but I didn't plan on going to protest," Gebremedhin said.
He says he was just on a break from work at the Microsoft store when he encountered protestors.
"I was in the front, yes. But I was in the front because of how I started," Gebremedhin said. "We came up the elevator and that's where we were standing. We went through in a circle. I didn't intend to be the leader. I didn't plan to lead the protest. Everyone was saying 'don't shoot, hands up.' We all were saying that."
Mall security says Gebremedhin was a very active leader that day. They won't release the surveillance video, but showed it to WCCO. In it, Gebremedhin walks at the head of the group, either leading or facing the crowd for most of the nearly hour-long walk.
They shout, "Don't Shoot, Hands Up," as Gebremedhin and some others pump their hands and arms.
Police eventually moved in.
"I said, 'Officer, can somebody take me to my job, or can I exit somewhere?'" Gebremedhin said. "I didn't hear anything. All he said was, 'arrest.'"
Any arrest on Mall property means you can't come back for a year. For Gebremedhin, that means he can't work. He says he tried to get a special permit, but was denied.
"I just want to know why I was denied to get my permit," he said. "Because there's nothing the mall can show me saying that I did something super bad to the point that I can't keep my job."
Two other people who work at stores in the Mall were arrested that day who are also not being allowed to return to work.
Mall officials say they want Gebremedhin to get a job and succeed, but cannot grant him a work permit during the ban.