New Britain mayor says Target manager kicked police off premises during department’s school supply drive
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NEW BRITAIN, CT (WFSB) — The New Britain mayor is calling out her city’s Target store.
On Tuesday, Mayor Erin Stewart took to Twitter saying a store manager told city police officers to leave the premises as they were trying to hold their annual back-to-school supply drive.
According to Stewart, the store manager told officers to leave because “he doesn’t support the police.”
New Britain’s Fire Chief Raul Ortiz even reacted to the incident on Twitter, saying “I’ll donate. That is unbelievable. Isn’t community policing and involvement what we want more of? Our NBPD has been exceptional in that aspect.”
Not long after she posted about the incident on Twitter, she followed up by saying Target’s regional manager made a personal $500 donation for supplies, and apologized for what had happened.
She also said Target is now letting the police department go back to the store this weekend to continue its collection drive. It’ll be held on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A bin has also been placed inside the store.
Channel 3 has reached out to Target for a comment on Wednesday. Friday, it released a brief statement.
“Our manager did not, at any time during the conversation, express a lack of support for law enforcement,” the statement read.
On Wednesday, New Britain spokesman Edward Ford said “the past 24 hours we’ve seen a tremendous amount of support from the community for the police department’s back to school.drive.”
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