2 KCK police officers disciplined for use of force over $5 pizza

By Betsy Webster

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    KANSAS CITY, Kansas (KCTV) — Two Kansas City, Kansas, police officers are being disciplined for how they handled a receipt check at a Walmart near the Legends.

Dayton Borisouth, 24, was held down with a knee on his neck over a receipt for a $5 frozen pizza. Borisouth said he paid for the pizza but initially wouldn’t show his receipt to the police officer because he believed he wasn’t legally required to do so.

A video of the interaction went viral on TikTok.

It happened on June 1 in the breezeway between the outside and inside doors. The first officer was working off-duty as security for Walmart. Two others showed up when he called for backup.

His uncle, Christopher Enloe, began shooting the interaction on his phone after someone came to the parking lot to tell him what was happening.

It begins with Borisouth on the ground and the officer trying to place him on his stomach.

“Stop fighting it,” he said to his nephew. “Okay? Look at me.”

“Here’s the f—— receipt bro,” Borisouth says to the officer. “Read it dumba—.”

Borisouth gave his account of what happened before his uncle started recording.

He said he bought a frozen pizza at self-checkout, skipped bagging it to avoid waste, and had just passed the officer when they first interacted.

“He said, ‘Got your receipt?’” Borisouth recounted. “And I answered. I said, ‘Yes.’ And then I just kept walking.”

In the reflection of the sliding glass door, he then saw the officer approaching him from behind with urgency.

“I shook my head no, and said, ‘Stop chasing me. You don’t have the right to detain me. I didn’t break any laws,’ and then he pinned me in the corner where the claw machine was,” Borisouth continued.

A video recorded by a bystander whom KCTV5 was unable to reach for permission to show on our air begins when Borisouth is up against the wall. It’s taken from further away than his uncle’s video, so the verbal interaction is hard to hear.

Borisouth said after the officer pushed him against the wall, he told the officer, “I have the receipt. It’s in my pocket.”

“And as I was pulling it out of my pocket, he’s like, ‘Stop reaching in your pocket. Stop reaching your pockets,’ like I had a weapon,” Borisouth said. “But whenever it first started, I cleared it up with him immediately. I was like, ‘I have one weapon on me. And it’s not a weapon.’ I was like, ‘It’s my work blade and I do not intend to use it. I let him know that immediately.”

Borisouth explained that he remodels houses for a living. He wasn’t planning to go to Walmart. He said his uncle called him there to help him jumpstart his car. When the jump failed, and they were waiting for a tow, he decided to go inside to get a pizza for dinner at home. He had just come from work on a hot day and had his shirt off.

He accused the officer of selecting him for a receipt check because he was shirtless and had blue hair.

Borisouth said he was angry at first, pushing to get up once he was on the ground.

His uncle tried to calm him.

“Dayton, please,” he says in the video.

Borisouth then put his hands down and gestured towards his uncle.

“Can you have him read the receipt?” he says.

He said eventually put his hands under his forehead instead of behind his back because he was afraid his head would be slammed into the ground. The second officer appeared to have him by the hair.

Then, the second officer can be heard saying, “I’m going to break your nose. Do it now.”

“He had his hands like this on my nose, twisting it this way,” said Borisouth. “It hurt. It hurt really bad.”

Then he got a knee on his neck and began screaming. The second officer got his hands behind his back and handcuffed him while the third held his legs.

“There needs to be at least a suspension, at least, because that’s serious,” Borisouth said. “George Floyd died from that.”

Later in the video, after police had him handcuffed and were lifting him to a standing position, you can see the pizza on the ground along with what looks to be a crumpled receipt beneath where he was.

what looks to be a crumpled receipt on the ground beneath where he was, along with the pizza.

He said he was detained for an hour in a police car, then was told he was being released because the receipt was valid, but he was getting a summons to appear for refusing to comply with commands.

He said he went back into the store after being released to ask if he could exchange his now thawed and damaged pizza and was politely accommodated.

He reported the incident to the department’s internal affairs department on June 3.

On June 12, police announced they had concluded their internal investigation and released the following statement:

A video of a recent incident involving an off-duty officer has been widely circulated on social media, prompting questions from the public and media. Below is a statement from the KCKPD regarding the outcome of our internal investigation which we hope addresses those concerns.

“The KCKPD conducted an investigation into this incident prior to the social media posting. That investigation revealed a chain of events and responses that culminated in the altercation viewed by many.

The off-duty officer observed the individual walking towards the exit with unbagged merchandise. When requested to present his receipt, the individual refused, became belligerent and continued out the door despite the officer’s verbal commands. It is our determination that the officer should have disengaged at that time due to the circumstances.

The investigation also concluded 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 charge against the individual, hindering an investigation, has been dismissed at the request of the Police Department.

Moving forward, we will work with all our retail partners to ensure that there is a clear, mutual understanding of our officers role while working in any off-duty capacity.”

“It makes me feel a little bit better that they’re starting to realize that I’m not a criminal,” Borisouth said of the police statement. “I was just trying to buy a pizza for my family to eat. No matter what, this is going to stick with me for the rest of my life. I’m probably always going to be scared of cops now and fearing for my daughter and my son and what they’re going to have to go through as they get older.”

He said he has contacted a lawyer and plans to sue. He showed KCTV5 how his wrist continues to make a popping sound when he moves it. He said a doctor suggested he see an orthopedic specialist.

Borisouth said he didn’t initially offer up his receipt because he’d seen videos about Walmart checking receipts and knew he didn’t have to comply. He referenced this news story online.

There have been numerous lawsuits related to detaining people after receipt checks at Walmart. Just last week, according to Business Insider, one of those concluded with Walmart found not liable.

The article clarifies what customers should know.

“While shoppers are not legally required to show receipts, a customer’s refusal to show their receipt could give a store probable cause to detain them, previous cases have determined,” it states.

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