Let’s jump right into this one: a customer went on a rant at a Dollar Tree in Lawrenceville, Georgia. She can be seen on footage calling a black store clerk all sorts of racist terms. Nonetheless, the woman, who stepped forward as Pamela Sharma insists she’s not racist because she has taught black and latino students as a teacher. Local outlet WSB-TV first covered the viral video in a Thursday report .
At first, they blurred out Sharma’s face since authorities didn’t charge her with a crime. Clerk Alise Fowler said the customer came to the store Wednesday, and left an item on the register because she wasn’t going to buy it. Fowler said she asked the woman to give it to her so she could return it. That’s when the customer “snapped,” Fowler said.
“She called me a ‘black bitch,’ a ‘black whore,'” said Fowler, who made a complaint to Gwinnett County police. “She told me to go back to Africa. She told me she would shoot me.”
As seen on video, she tells someone “You’re a black slave!”
Things don’t end there. WSB-TV released their report on Thursday, and the customer–Sharma–saw it. She reached out to the outlet for an on-camera interview.
Sharma denied being racist: she was raised in a Christian school, born into a “Hindu priest-class family,” the “peace-loving” Brahmin clergy who believe in Gandhism.
“If my life doesn’t matter to you, and my people died, who were represented with Gandhi, your live doesn’t matter to me either. Is that a racist comment?” Sharma asked rhetorically.
She said she used to be a high school teacher, working with black and Latino schools.
She claimed she was the victim of racism, and that Fowler instigated the argument, which started before the recording. Sharma said Fowler threatened to attack her.
Law&Crime provided the police report from the Wednesday incident. A responding officer said Fowler claimed that Sharma threatened to come back with a gun and shot her. The cop said that witnesses provided two separate videos of the fight, but could not make out anything about a gun.
Fowler did not wish to press charges at the time. Neither did the manager at the Dollar Tree, who said that the women were regular customers and had never started problems before. She did not hear anyone threaten another with a gun, she said.
Sharma and her family denied making threats, and beating threatened, police said.
She, accompanied by her mother and sister, said that the argument started after they returned a product to someone Fowler didn’t like. Fowler complained about customers making the store messy, and told them to go back to their country, Sharma claimed.
The manager reportedly told police that Fowler stepped out of line, but the responding officer asked if either party was a “a primary aggressor,” and she said no.
The case remains closed, a Gwinnett County police spokesperson said Tuesday.
Note: The article has been updated with information from a police report.
[Screengrab via WSB-TV]