Police officers restrain a Walmart shopper.
Chris Enloe
A Walmart shopper said a police officer pinned him to the ground after asking about his receipt.
Dayton Borisouth told Insider the officer confronted him after he purchased a $5 frozen pizza.
The Kansas City, Kansas police department said it disciplined two officers involved in the incident.
A Walmart shopper said he was pinned to the ground by police officers in Kansas City, Kansas after one of them asked to see his receipt for a $5 frozen pizza.
Dayton Borisouth, 24, told Insider he was leaving the Walmart store in early June after purchasing the pizza for his family, when an officer confronted him.
“As I took one, maybe two, steps past him, he said, ‘Got your receipt?’ and I said ‘yes’ and kept walking,” Borisouth said. “As I walked toward the sliding glass door, I saw in the reflection that he was coming at me.”
Borisouth said the officer pinned him to a brick wall and asked if he had paid for his purchase.
“I said, ‘Yes I did, I have the receipt in my left pocket. But you don’t have a right to detain me,'” Borisouth recalled saying.
Borisouth said the officer called backup, wrestled him to the ground, and attempted to handcuff him. Borisouth said he tried to resist the handcuffs.
“Then the other officers come running in, and I felt hope thinking they were there to help me,” Borisouth said. “Then they jump on my back and one officer puts his knee on my neck.” He said one of the officers threatened to break his nose.
“I started to get scared so I immediately stopped resisting,” he said.
He was charged with hindering an investigation and held in a police car for about an hour, he said. The charge was later dismissed. Fox 4 Kansas City was the first to report on the incident
In a statement to Insider, the Kansas City, Kansas police department said it has investigated the incident and disciplined two officers involved.
Video shows officers kneeling on the Walmart shopper
The police department said Borisouth became “belligerent” after he was asked for his receipt.
“When requested to present his receipt, the individual refused, became belligerent, and continued out the door despite the officer’s verbal commands,” the department said. “It is our determination that the officer should have disengaged at that time due to the circumstances.”
The department’s investigation also found that “one of the responding officers employed techniques that are not approved, nor trained, by the department.”
“Due to these findings, both officers have been disciplined consistent with policy and will undergo additional training to ensure future compliance,” the police department said.
Borisouth’s uncle, Chris Enloe, recorded part of the incident on video and shared the footage with Insider.
In the video, which was also posted to TikTok, an officer can be seen restraining Borisouth on the floor. Borisouth is heard shouting at the officer and offering his receipt. He holds what appears to be a crumpled piece of paper. Borisouth appears to resist being restrained, then two officers kneel on his body.
A Walmart spokesperson declined to provide information on the company’s policy for receipt checks, saying the retailer doesn’t discuss store procedures publicly.
Do you have to show your receipt at Walmart?
Shoppers are not legally required to show receipts at any retailer. But refusing to show your receipt could give a store probable cause to detain you, as my colleague Gloria Dawson has reported.
One customer sued Walmart after repeatedly refusing to show receipts for his purchases at Denver-area Walmart stores, leading workers to detain him.
Walmart was recently found not liable for false imprisonment of the customer.