JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A black Jacksonville couple filed a lawsuit against Walmart on Wednesday after they say they were “profiled,” “wrongfully imprisoned” and “humiliated” when they were accused of shoplifting children’s clothing at a Northside store in October.

Attorneys for the couple, including Jacksonville Councilman Rory Diamond, argued that the couple is not alone and that Walmart repeatedly, systemically and disproportionately discriminates against black customers.

According to the lawsuit, Nekeeya and Raymond Brewster went to the Walmart Supercenter at River City Marketplace on Oct. 13 to buy clothes for one of their three daughters. Later that day, they said they had their daughter try on the clothes, but some items were too small. The Brewsters returned to the store the next day after attending church to change into clothing that was too small, the lawsuit says.

Before leaving her car to go into the shop, Mrs Brewster, a social worker, said she told her husband she wasn’t quite sure what the best way to change clothes was.

“She decided the smart thing to do was to put the clothes and the receipt for the clothes in the original Walmart bag and then close the bag,” the suit says.

At the store, Ms. Brewster said she put the Walmart bag with the clothes and the receipt that was tied into a shopping cart and went to the children’s department. She then found the right size for her child and headed to customer service, according to the lawsuit.

At customer service, Ms. Brewster said she asked the customer service employee to exchange five items of clothing for her and return a pair of children’s pants. While explaining that it was an “uniform exchange”, Ms Brewster said she untied the bag and produced the items of clothing she wanted to exchange and the receipt for those items.

After waiting a while, Ms. Brewster said she was approached by someone with Walmart loss prevention.

“Ma’am, I saw you put something in your bag,” the employee said, according to the lawsuit.

Ms Brewster replied, according to the suit, with her child in her arms: “No, you didn’t see anything in my bag, what are you talking about?”

The Walmart employee then said loud enough for about 10 customers to hear, “Ma’am, I’m going to have you put these pairs of pants in your bag,” according to Brewsters.

As he said this, the employee picked up a pair of brown children’s pants and held them up in the air.

Mr Brewster said he then showed the employee the receipt from the previous day, but the employee refused to look at it.

According to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office incident report, the Walmart employee called JSO and said Ms. Brewster had hidden stolen merchandise in her bag and needed to be “stopped.”

Two JSO officers showed up at the store, and the Brewsters said they and their three daughters were “forced” to follow the JSO officers to a desk in the front of the store.

The JSO officer then questioned the Walmart employee.

“Do they have a receipt? It’s not the information you told us, not what’s on the body cam,” the JSO officer told the employee, according to the lawsuit.

“We think we saw her put things in her bag,” the employee replied, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the employee admitted they didn’t have video that actually appeared to show Ms. Brewster putting anything in the bag, and that they didn’t see Brewster put anything in the bag when they confronted JSO.

The JSO officers then told the Brewsters that they were free to go and that they had not been charged with any crime.

According to the lawsuit, the Brewster family said they were profiled, wrongfully imprisoned, wrongfully detained, defamed, discriminated against in violation of their civil rights and humiliated.

The lawsuit, citing other examples, claims what happened to the Brewsters continues a trend of Walmart security and staff profiling black customers who have done nothing wrong based on little or no evidence other than their race.

The couple is seeking damages, costs and attorneys’ fees and costs on each count, along with a jury trial.

The suit also asks the court to certify the complaint as a class action representing Black Walmart customers who have been discriminated against by Walmart or its employees over the past two years through racially-related security profiling.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.