A Houston mother said she and her children were kicked out of their neighborhood pool and threatened with jail time by a police officer.
On Saturday, Tramica Thomas arrived with her five kids to the Largo Mar community pool in Houston for a fun time. But, not long after getting there, Thomas said she was approached by a lifeguard who told her she had too many guests.
“He asked, ‘Well, who are these guys in front of me right here?’” Thomas recalled in an interview with ABC13. “I said ‘I don’t know who they are.’ Mind you, they were Black, they weren’t with me.”
While the conversation ended there and Thomas believe the issue had been settled, a Texas City police officer later arrived and ordered her to get out of the pool. Thomas told the officer that the lifeguards on duty did not ask her to leave during their exchange; yet, she and her children were escorted out of the pool area by police.
Thomas posted a live video of the ordeal on her Facebook page.
While the homeowner's association cites that Thomas and her kids were kicked out for “unruly and unsafe behavior," Thomas refuted the claims and said things escalated when a lifeguard showed negligence as her 6-year-old daughter struggled to get out of the pool. The mother also said that there is plenty of security footage at the pool to confirm her story and that her family was racially profiled.
“If someone is targeting based off of race, they shouldn’t be working here because this is a diverse community,” she said.
Thomas has filed a citizen’s complaint against the police officer as the Texas City Police Department investigates the encounter.