Barneys CEO: Store didn't question purchases by alleged racial profiling victims

(CBS) NEW YORK - No one from the luxury retailer Barneys "raised any issue" with the purchases of two young black shoppers who lateraccused the store of racial profiling, Barneys CEO Mark Lee said Tuesday following a meeting with civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss the allegations.

"No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities," Lee said, according to CBS New York.

Last week, two young black customers accused Barneys of racial profiling after they said they were detained by police on suspicion of credit card fraud after lawfully purchasing expensive items.

One of the shoppers, 19-year-old Trayon Christian said the store and police targeted him in April of this year because they didn't think he could afford a $350 Ferragamo belt.

After buying the belt using his Chase debit card, Christian's attorney Michael Palillo said Christian was stopped less than a block from the store by undercover NYPD detectives.

Palillo said the officers told Christian they had received a call from Barneys telling them that the debit card he used to buy the belt was fraudulent.

He has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the store, the city and its police department.

Another shopper, 21-year-old Kayla Phillips, told the New York Daily News and the New York Post that she was surrounded by police officers after she left the store in February having purchased a $2,500 Celine handbag.

Rev. Al Sharpton said he and other community leaders had "a very candid" meeting with Lee on Tuesday to discuss the allegations of racial profiling at the high-end retailer, the station reports.

"We had a very candid and open meeting today to begin a dialogue," Sharpton said after the private 45-minute meeting with Lee at Sharpton's National Action Network office in Harlem.

Hazel Dukes, president of the New York chapter of the NAACP, former Gov. David Paterson, other civil rights leaders, pastors and elected officials also attended the meeting.

While Lee asserted Tuesday that Barneys' initial investigation showed no employees were involved in the two incidents, he said the retailer wanted to be part of the solution to racial profiling in stores, reports the station.

Barneys isn't the only New York retailer under fire for alleged racial profiling. Robert Brown, a black actor who stars in the HBO series "Treme," said Friday that he was stopped by police while shopping at Macy's flagship Manhattan store. According to his lawsuit, Brown was detained by police on June 8 after employees contacted authorities about possible credit card fraud.

In a statement, Macy's said there was no record of any employee contacting authorities in regards to Brown's purchase, reports CBS New York. The store said police officers requested use of a room in the building and that request was granted.

The store said it was reaching out to Brown in an effort to continue investigating the situation, according to the station.

Another individual reportedly claims he used two credit cards to spend several hundred dollars on shirts and ties at Macy's Herald Square in April 2013, and was then stopped by four undercover police officers upon exiting.

The New York Attorney General's Office has sent letters to executives at both Barneys New York and Macy's Eastasking the stores to turn over their "policies and procedures for stopping, detaining and, questioning" customers.

Lee said Tuesday that Barneys would "cooperate fully" with the state attorney general.

"We offer our deepest sympathies" to the two alleged profiling victims, said Lee, adding that the retailer "has a policy of zero tolerance for discrimination in any form."

Sharpton said he wants to convene a meeting with CEOs of various major retailers and the New York Police Department to discuss profiling.

Complete coverage of the alleged racial profiling at Barneys and Macy's on Crimesider