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UPDATE: Police have now arrested the owner of Brandon’s Liquor Store, Fox 2 reports:
DPD told FOX 2 that the case was under review by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. He could be charged with assault.
Original story below:
Police are investigating the alleged beating of a Black woman by a party store owner in Detroit, the aftermath of which was captured in bystander video shared to Facebook.
The video, aired by Fox 2, showed a woman on the floor of Brandon’s Liquor Store on Puritan and Coyle bleeding from the lower half of her face, her nose reportedly broken.
The store's co-owner, Bassam Yatooma, told the station he took the woman, who was panhandling, to the ground after she refused to leave and spit in his face. He said he's fearful about contracting Covid-19 and lost both his parents to the illness.
A relative of the woman, Andrea Warren, and the bystander who recorded dispute that's what happened. The relative told Fox 2 that Yatooma dragged her inside the store and started beating her "like she was a man." The bystander told the station Warren did not spit on Yatooma.
Warren, for her part, said she couldn't remember the lead up to the altercation.
Tensions ran high outside the store Tuesday after the video circulated online. Activists showed up in protest and someone tagged the building with the Black Lives Matter acronym.
Yatooma tells Fox 2 he may sell the store given the backlash.
