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FREMONT, Calif. – A California woman who hopes to join the Los Angeles Police Department says she was racially profiled after she asked about ammunition at a sporting goods store.
According to KNTV, Sim Sangha, a firearms instructor, went to a Dick’s Sporting Goods store last Wednesday and asked an employee about buying eight boxes of ammunition. On Friday police arrived at her home to question her. They were there because the store employee had alerted them.
“They singled me out based on the way that I looked,” she said.
She had not purchased the ammunition at the store – instead she bought an exercise mask – but police said they came to her door because they were on a heightened alert due to the recent massacre in San Bernardino, Calif.
“I feel like I was racially profiled,” she told the station. “I’ve had friends buy bulk ammo and they’ve never had police show up at their door.”
Sangha, 24, added, “I don’t know if it’s [because of] my skin color or that I’m Indian. I’m not a Muslim, but even if I were, that’s no reason to call police to my home, instantly.”
The woman told the station she was hoping to become a LAPD officer, and could have shown the store her certification had they asked.
Police told KNTV they apologized to Sangha. The Fremont, Calif., police department said it did not have a defined policy about how to heighten police action against incidents that may be considered terrorist-related, but defended their choice to visit the woman because residents found her “suspicious.”
The Dick’s Sporting Goods store did not respond to KNTV’s requests for comment, according to the station.