Black security officer attacked on duty quits TV after white boss interrupts interview and blames him for assault

A security guard quit his job during an interview with Fox 7 in Austin after his white supervisor blamed him for an on-the-job assault.

Two young suspects attacked Percy Payne and damaged property in the parking lot of the office building he was assigned to protect. In a shocking and blatant case of victim blaming, Payne’s manager at Priebe Security Services screamed at him off-camera after he told reporters about the incident, yelling, “Listen, Percy, I wouldn’t touch him! I wouldn’t touch him! You touched him!”

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on June 24, Payne said he observed two men on surveillance video entering a private underground parking garage at his workplace at East 6th and Brushy St. in East Austin. “I saw two young Hispanic men on two electric scooters,” he told Fox 7.

When he came downstairs he saw the men near his car and thought they were trying to steal it.

“One person was standing by the driver’s door, his back to me, looking back. The other person was standing by the passenger door, facing me, acting as a lookout,” he recalled. When he tried to stop the two suspects, the situation worsened.

“A young person tried to run me over with his scooter several times. And that’s when they started attacking me,” Payne told a local news agency, adding that he noticed a screwdriver sticking out of one of the man’s pockets.

“I heard the individual say, ‘Hold him.’ And then he reached for the screwdriver to stab me. I let go of him and immediately went to get my work phone to call 911,” Payne said.

The remainder of the attack was captured on surveillance cameras, leaving no doubt that Payne was simply doing his job.

Surveillance footage shows two men wearing hoods and covering their faces leaving the parking lot on scooters, with Payne following them on foot. As the two suspects came down the ramp, one of them hit a gate and fell off his scooter, giving Payne a chance to catch up. The footage shows Payne and the man who crashed talking face to face in a seemingly calm manner, while the other suspect circled the pair on a scooter.

In the next clip, Payne grapples with two men at the parking lot gate. As one of the men tried to punch and kick Payne, the other picked up what appeared to be a filled plastic water bottle and threw it at the security guard, narrowly hitting him in the head. In the two-on-one brawl, Payne and one of the suspects struck each other at least once. The next clip showed Payne walking down a parking ramp alone.

Payne later told TMZ he was frustrated with the police response to the on-duty incident.

Despite the threat to his safety and his brave attempt to thwart the suspects, his supervisor later reprimanded him in an interview on Fox 7 for violating company policy and speaking to the press in uniform.

“We’re so sorry this happened to you,” she told Payne, stopping midway through the interview. “We have a policy that no interviews can be conducted in uniform. If you want to do it as a private citizen, you can,” she said off-camera.

Payne was wearing a light-colored shirt with two illegible patches and an illegible ID tag.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he said, “I understand what you’re saying, but it’s also my safety. And only in this way will my situation be clarified.

Payne decided to go off the air, according to a local reporter. Although the manager’s image was blurry in the interview, it was clear that tensions were mounting as she waved her phone in one hand and ordered Payne to take off his uniform.

The video shows Payne in his usual clothes – a Cleveland Browns football jersey – as he remained patient despite the barrage of screams. – Look, Percy, I would never touch him! I wouldn’t touch him! You touched him!”

When he calmly asked her if she thought the incident was his fault, the unidentified manager doubled down on the ridiculous behavior and said, “I would say yes. Every inch”.

At that point, the shocked man said, “OK, OK,” looking into the distance. In an incredible show of kindness, he told her, “Thank you. No problem.”

He later summed up the heated exchange with reporters: “The fact that my supervisor basically told me it was my fault that I was attacked allowed me to learn everything I needed to know.”

Priebe Security Services has a 3.1 rating on Google based on 112 reviews, with many of the negative comments coming from people who identify as former employees who have been with the company for at least three years. A company representative recently told Fox they were “looking into the situation” with Payne.