A Publix employee who witnessed part of an altercation between a black Georgia state lawmaker and a white man she accused of making racist comments told police it was Rep. Erica Thomas who actually made the remarks.
The witness said she heard Thomas “continuously tell Eric Sparkes to ‘Go back where you came from!’” but did not hear Sparkes say those words to Thomas, according to a Cobb County police report.
The Georgia Democrat originally claimed Friday in a tearful video that Sparkes, who says he’s a Democrat of Cuban descent, had confronted her in the grocery store checkout line and told her to “go back where you came from,” a phrase sparking an uproar after President Trump told four congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries.
Sparkes admitted to calling Thomas a “bitch” during the confrontation, saying he was upset she was in the express aisle lane when she had too many items, but denied he ever told her to “go back where you came from.”
Both Thomas and Sparkes have urged Publix to release video of the incident. An officer who reviewed the tape, which did not have audio, wrote in the police report that Sparkes “did not appear to be irate” and he walked away from Thomas when she moved toward him “pointing her finger at him.”
When Thomas moved toward Sparkes a second time, a Publix employee motioned for Sparkes to leave, according to the police report.
The confrontation lasted about 45 seconds.
The Publix employee, a customer service manager, told police that after Sparkes confronted Thomas and was leaving, “Ms. Thomas kept ‘running her mouth’ as she approached him.” Sparkes then told Thomas she was “ignorant.”
The employee said she did not hear either use profanity.
Derrick Tompkins, another employee, said he heard Sparkes call Thomas an expletive, but that he didn’t hear Sparkes tell Thomas to “go back” to where she came from.
“I’m not going to say that wasn’t said, but I don’t remember hearing it,” Tompkins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m going to leave it at that.”
Thomas’ attorney said the police report shows there is a need for more investigation into the confrontation, but Cobb authorities said there has already been a “thorough” investigation into the matter and they don’t intend to file criminal charges.
