Saks Fifth Avenue apologizes to Washington Wizards general manager Will Dawkins over 2023 racial profiling incident

Washington Wizards general manager Will Dawkins received a formal apology from luxury clothing store Saks Fifth Avenue on Thursday after he was the subject of a racial profiling incident by one of its security guards in Miami on Nov. 2, 2023.

Dawkins said he was followed and grabbed by an unidentified plainclothes Brickell security guard and a Miami police officer and taken back to the store. The security guard and the police officer said he stole clothing and concealed them after leaving the Saks store at the Brickell City Centre. It was later determined that night from video surveillance that the first-year Wizards general manager was mistaken for a man who was recorded stealing clothing. Dawkins was released by the store security the same night. The Wizards were in town to play the Miami Heat.

Larry Bruce, president of Saks Fifth Avenue, sent a letter to Dawkins that was posted Thursday on LinkedIn that included an official apology from himself and the company, taking full responsibility for an incident “that should have never happened.” Bruce added that the security guard in question is “no longer with the company, broke protocol by approaching [Dawkins] without identifying himself, falsely accused [Dawkins] of shoplifting, and, with the assistance of Miami PD, wrongfully detained [Dawkins].” Bruce added that all other security personnel at the Saks Brickell store were retrained by Nov. 10, 2023, and will be retrained “if they don’t adhere to security policies and procedures.”

Saks Fifth Avenue has also donated to three charities in Dawkins’ name, the Greater Washington Urban League, Roca in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity. Dawkins described the donations as sizable.

“There was a violation of our policies that never should have happened. It is an important reminder to our entire organization that we must continually work to ensure that every guest that comes through our doors is welcomed and treated with respect,” Bruce wrote on LinkedIn. “As part of this, we are pleased to be making donations to three worthy organizations that are dedicated to making a positive impact on causes that are important to Mr. Dawkins.”

Dawkins believed it was necessary to address the racial profiling incident at Saks Fifth Avenue as a push to “readjust their policy and personnel” for the better in hopes of making a greater racial and social impact. The Springfield, Massachusetts, native agreed to speak to Andscape in hopes that his story will help others without a voice who have faced racial profiling, and perhaps prevent such incidents by changing how stores nationwide treat their customers.

“The advice that I got throughout this process, which was a lot of helpful stuff, was that my mother kept telling me this was an incident that happened for me and not to me,” Dawkins said to Andscape in a phone interview. “So, I understand that not everyone wants to hear this story and not everyone will believe this story. I think there’ll be people who will ask why I’m even talking about it and be upset with me sharing my experience. I get that. And it’s not for everyone, but even if one person comes across this and it gives them strength to speak up, then it was all worth it.

“My hope is that other stores see this and elect to readjust their policy or personnel and in turn those changes prevent at least one future event like this from happening to someone else. Once I was able to reshape my thinking, I realized it was all worth it because this didn’t happen to me, it happened for me.”

Dawkins gave an exclusive interview to Andscape on Thursday after the apology was released, offering details about the racial profiling incident, how his parents inspired him to speak out, how it has affected him mentally, why he told Wizards players, and more.

Can you detail what happened on Nov. 2?

We had just flown into Miami and were going to play the Heat the next night. I was informed that I had a chance to speak to some season ticket members. When I was told it was outdoors by the hotel pool instead of indoors, I decided to go purchase a short-sleeved shirt. I walked over to the Brickell City Centre, which is near our hotel. It was probably around 8 p.m. that night. [I] stopped in a couple stores. Purchased a shirt at Zara. I walked out with a tiny white bag. Stores were about to close. On my way out, I saw Saks Fifth Avenue and decided to pop my head in there just to see if they had other options. [I] entered on the third floor, browsed at some shoes that were right there when I walked through the door, took the escalator down to the second floor, looked at the shirts section for probably two minutes, realized it wasn’t my style, and within four minutes exited the store.

Once I’m back walking the outdoor mall area, I get two stores down and I’m looking at the Apple Store to my right, thinking about buying my wife new Air Pods that we recently misplaced. Out of the corner of my eye, I see somebody run up on me. They were in plainclothes, jeans and a collared shirt, like a normal civilian. [He] never addressed himself and never showed a badge or anything like that. He tried to grab my arms and hold me down. Instinctually, I pushed him away, put my back against the glass, checked my pockets to see where my phones were, in case they were trying to steal from me, then put my hands up, ready to defend myself or mentally prepared to run if they pull something out. But before the tussle escalated, I saw a police officer come out of my right side. I’m thinking the cop is coming to stop this dude from stealing from me. Instead, the officer grabs me, holds me and tells me to stop resisting.

So, when this first happened, you think you’re just getting robbed or assaulted?

Yeah, I think I’m being robbed because a plainclothes person comes at me, tries to grab my hands, which has my bag in it. I’m thinking, ‘What’s he trying to steal? Did he get anything?’ and then focus on defending myself. Once the police officer arrived, they both loudly accused me of stealing from the store, and I realized it was a different type of circumstance that I would have to deal with. Despite my protest and explanation that I didn’t take anything and that I would never steal from them, they said, ‘We got you. You were here earlier today. You tried to come back again. You’re not going to get us this time.’ At that point, they started walking me back into the store. The cop held my arm the entire time. I explained to him that he has the wrong person, that I’m the general manager of the Washington Wizards. There’s no way I was here previously stealing from them and asked for them to let me call our VP of security, Brian Thompson.

While still holding me, I provide my NBA ID. And then at that point the police officer let me call Brian. I called Brian and said, ‘Hey, there’s a situation going on at Saks. It looks like they’re holding me, taking me to the back.’ He was at our team dinner at the time, which I was initially on my way to after shopping, and he instantly said, ‘I’m on it. I’ll be there. Be smart and just be safe.’ After that, I entered their back office, and there was another young gentleman who was surveying the tapes. They confiscated my bag, my wallet, both cellphones and just started searching through all my stuff.

The whole thing probably lasted 20 minutes. At a certain point, another police officer entered to see how everything was going. I again expressed my displeasure and explained that ‘it’s not all good,’ that they can’t treat everyone like this. ‘You can’t falsely accuse me and we all don’t look alike.’ The policeman researched me online and quickly exited the room. I don’t blame the Miami PD. They were told by the Saks employee to come assist with this. They saw the altercation was about to get worse. They broke it up, took the employee’s word for it and it is what it is.

Even after the police exited, I continued to be accused by Saks personnel that I had been stealing. At this point, I got pretty defensive and said, ‘Please find the tape and show it to me.’ I’d say approximately 10 minutes later, they realized that they have nothing, and they asked me to sign this paper and told me I am free to leave, to which I refused and elected to stay around until my team security arrived.

After Brian arrived and fully investigated the situation, the Saks employees admitted that they had made a mistake and connected us with their regional manager who apologized and said it would be handled internally. Brian and I departed for the team dinner. Thirty minutes into the meal, we received a phone call from the higher ups at Saks Fifth Avenue apologizing, wanting to speak with me directly about the incident, saying they quickly reviewed it, and that they were completely in the wrong, which I really respected.

From then on, I took some time to myself. Talked to my family. Talked to Brian, talked to [Wizards president] Mike Winger, talked to [CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment] Ted Leonsis because the next morning it just really didn’t sit right with me. So, I made sure that I thoroughly thought through what I wanted to do before reaching back out to them and coming up with some ideas on how we can make a negative situation have more of a positive outcome.

How did things end that night with you and the Saks security guard?

His concern was that he was going to lose his job for not acting in an appropriate manner. I told him that I would understand his concerns and that I would never actively try to let someone lose their job unjustifiably. An incident like this, it’s not about the individuals. It’s about what’s right. And the way I was treated was wrong, and I had to go about preventing that from happening again.

Did the Saks security guard ever apologize?

It was never an, ‘I’m sorry.’ It was more, ‘Hey, we made a mistake. This shouldn’t have happened. My bad,’-type of thing.

What were your emotions after the incident?

When the dust settled, what were my emotions? In the heat of the moment, your personal safety is top of mind. Once I was able to calm down and I knew that the situation was going to be resolved without any more force, I just felt irritated. I was also disappointed that these type of things are still so commonplace and often go without repercussions.

Where did you go from there?

Through conversations with everyone in my family, I realized that I’m big on accountability and respect. I was always raised that way. My wife Tara and I, we try to instill those traits into our children. When I woke up the next morning and couldn’t shake that feeling of being incorrectly accused or unfairly targeted, I knew I had to do something. My family, friends, Mike, Ted, all empathized with me. They also supported me in making sure that this incident was addressed and that those involved were held accountable. The entire evening didn’t sit right with me. Though I was the person involved this time, this unfortunately does happen to many other people who look like me. And because of that, things like raising awareness, changing store policies and protocols, retraining of staff, I believed all of that would be more beneficial than any personal financial gain of mine.

I’ll say this, that Saks acted as a great partner through all of this. They were very apologetic and collaborative. They addressed all of my concerns head-on. They adhered to the recommendations that I made and agreed to make sizable donations to three separate organizations, one locally in Miami, benefiting the community in which the incident occurred. But then also the two communities closest to me, my hometown of Springfield and then here in D.C. There are a lot of good people and groups doing good out there to help fight against these inequalities, and I felt the money is much better used within those programs.

So how soon did you hear from a Saks corporate executive?

Very quickly. They called me that night. And then it got up to the president. As soon as we sent a letter, they responded right away saying that they wanted to have a conversation with me and talk about any ideas that I had. They wanted to engage, listen.

Did that give you any comfort?

Yeah, for sure. For sure. The way that it was handled quickly and the collaboration that they had and the willingness to really look into not only what happened, but how they can prevent it from happening again was a positive.

What all did you ask for from Saks and what all did it ultimately do?

The things I requested were to look into the incident, review the staff, retrain not just them at the Brickell store, but take a look at the policies and retrain everyone. Make sure that a new outside person or group is the one responsible for the training, because obviously the last time it wasn’t as effective. I wanted them to publicly acknowledge that this event happened. And lastly, I wanted to work together to find programs in the communities that are closest to me.

But in terms of how I felt about the store response and donation, I was very pleased. They were intentional from the very beginning in partnering with me, honest and cooperative. Once they engaged, they took full responsibility, incorporated all of my suggestions and worked with me to donate to those programs. In the end, we found a positive resolution.

How do you feel now? Have there been any bouts of flashbacks, anger? Do you feel like it has been resolved?

I’m human. If I’m being honest, there are still moments. That next week I was in situations where I was on public streets and I was checking my pockets way more than I was before and I was just on higher alert than I felt like I probably should have been. I think on that trip we went to Philly, and I was walking on the streets differently than I had ever done in the past because it was the next city after the incident.

I do think that it was resolved in a positive way. I don’t think about the incident that often. As time went on, I’ve gotten closer to life before the incident, but there was still a fire that is often lit when I hear of it happening to someone else. That’s when I instantly put myself back in that mental state of self-defense with that feeling of the officer or holding my arm, telling me to stop resisting. I think the biggest impact has been that it’s inspired and empowered my wife and I to get more active and do more things in the community. That is our focus moving forward.

Have you even been in any department stores or malls since?

C’mon, man, I like shopping too much to stop doing that. I can’t let this change the way I approach life.

You said you and your wife have been doing some stuff in the community. Can you expound?

My wife and I feel a calling. We understand the enormous number of blessings our family’s been afforded and plan to be more active. The awareness piece is the first part of this. We have some things going back in her home state of Oklahoma and things in the work in Springfield within the early stages of our foundation. Tara is a PT [physical therapist]. It has always been a passion of ours to help impact health education and children back in our hometowns, and this encouraged and propelled us to move forward.

Have you shared this with any Wizards players and coaches?

On exit [interview] day, Michael, coach John Thompson (Wizards senior vice president) and I met with our group before we had individual meetings with the players. In that meeting, I addressed all our players and coaches. I didn’t want them to hear this from someone else. I wanted them to hear from me the importance of being safe and aware during the offseason. I emphasized that anything could happen to any of us and to stay alert. And just as important, when something does happen, know that you can trust us and the people around you to help in those situations. I let them know that I’m forever grateful to Brian for the way he reacted and oversaw the situation, the way that he gave advice in the moment, showed up quickly and asked the right questions that allowed me to get to this resolution.

Looking back, what inspired you to act and not let this go quietly?

What inspired me to finally act was a conversation I had with my dad. Success isn’t, nor should it be, measured for how one is treated, but neither should the color of your skin. The current age of technology, it helps shed light on how often profiling takes place. But as you know, some people still aren’t as aware because it doesn’t affect their day-to-day life. That specific conversation with my dad really helped provide clarity for me because both he and I have experienced situations in past where we did nothing wrong and once cleared, we were just happy to get back into our cars or back onto the street and go home.

There was a time when that was a win. While it still is a win, I’ve been blessed to be in the position with the Wizards to seek more. The role of the general manager comes with a small voice in the community, one in which I’m definitely grateful to have and respectfully honor and celebrate. But when my dad asked me, ‘What if this happened to one of the players on the team? Would you want them not to share their story? What if this happened to Trey?’ who is William III, my son. He is like, ‘Would you still choose to be quiet then?’ At that point I instantly knew.

Was this the first racial incident you really felt?

No, definitely not. I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, in a time where while in high school, nothing to be proud about, but we were top 10, top 15 most dangerous city in the country. And gang violence was pretty bad back then, and I often fit a description while driving my car or walking around with friends. If I am being honest, early on in my professional career both in Oklahoma and in college towns around the country, there were few instances as well. Nothing of late had gotten to this point and that is why I wanted to ensure that Saks addressed the situation publicly.