Ex-Cop Sentenced For Beating Walmart Customer

ATLANTA, GA — A former Atlanta police sergeant has been sentenced to prison for beating a Walmart customer he wrongly accused of stealing a single tomato.

Trevor King, 50, of Acworth, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Monday to five years behind bars. He was convicted in December on charges of using unreasonable force and falsifying a police report.

On Oct. 13, 2014, Tyrone Carnegay was shopping at the Walmart in downtown Atlanta. After buying groceries, he went back to the produce aisle to weigh a tomato for which he believed he'd been overcharged.

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King, who was working off-duty as security at the store, saw Carnegay on a security monitor weighing the tomato then walking out of the store after putting it back into his bag. Suspecting that Carnegay was stealing the tomato, King pulled his police baton and stopped him at the door.

Seconds later, he started hitting Carnegay on his legs with the metal baton. Carnegay fell to the floor and, as he lay there, King hit him again, causing a compound fracture to his leg.

After the attack, King found a receipt that showed Carnegay had paid for his groceries, including the tomato. But he charged Carnegay anyway, accusing him of assaulting and obstructing a police officer. He wrote up a fake police report to justify the fact he'd beaten Carnegay.

In that report, King claimed that Carnegay had tried to push past him and had reached for his gun. Carnegay was taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery on his broken leg, but was then taken to Fulton County Jail, where he was held several days before his release.

The Fulton County District Attorney's office later dismissed the charges against him.

U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones sentenced King to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

"He got what he deserved," Carnegay told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday after the sentencing. "He did me wrong."

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