It started with a misunderstanding—or at least, that’s how nineteen-year-old Jasmine Smith tells it. A busy Saturday afternoon at the Cordova Mall in Pensacola, Florida. The smell of Auntie Anne’s pretzels drifting down the corridor. Pop music echoing faintly from an H&M storefront where the latest fall styles hung under bright white lights.
And then, within an hour, came the raised voices, the police radio chatter, the handcuffs, and the viral video clip that would light up social media: a young woman, pinned down, screaming “Call my dad!” as officers restrained her near a pile of shopping bags.
The incident, captured on mall surveillance and police body cameras, has now become the latest flashpoint in an ongoing conversation about retail security, policing, and mental health in public spaces.
A Simple Shopping Trip
According to H&M employees, Jasmine entered the store around 3 p.m., wearing a blue hat, a black shirt, and brown pants. “She came in like any other customer,” said one of the managers, who asked not to be named because of ongoing legal proceedings. “We were short-staffed that day, so our fitting rooms were closed. When she tried to try on clothes on the sales floor, we politely told her that wasn’t allowed.”
That’s when, according to staff, things “got heated.”
Jasmine allegedly became defensive, insisting she had been trying on clothes in the open for months since the fitting rooms had been closed. “She got loud,” said another employee. “We just asked her to calm down, but she started swearing. We didn’t want to escalate it, so we asked her to leave.”
H&M management eventually called mall security. When Jasmine refused to exit, Pensacola Police officers were dispatched to the scene.
“They Know Me Here”
When the officers arrived, they found Jasmine standing near the entrance, visibly upset but cooperative at first. Bodycam footage shows her explaining her side of the story.
“I’ve worked in this mall for three years,” she tells the officers. “Everybody knows me here.” She mentions having worked at the now-closed Shoe Magic kiosk and claims she was looking for new work at nearby stores.
But the officers had a different mission: to enforce a trespass order at the request of the store’s management.
“Ma’am,” one officer says calmly, “this is a private business. They can ask anyone to leave. If you refuse, that’s trespassing.”
Jasmine pushes back: “He said he wasn’t the owner. He was just a manager.”
Under Florida law, however, store managers have full authority to issue trespass warnings on behalf of their employer. “If they ask you to go, you gotta go,” one officer explains in the footage. “If you don’t, you can be arrested.”
As the conversation continues, Jasmine retrieves her ID—actually, two IDs. When the officer notices the duplicate, he warns her that possessing two valid state IDs is itself a misdemeanor offense. “You can actually go to jail for that,” he says. Jasmine insists she didn’t know. “I lost mine, got another one, and then found the first.”
The tension in the footage is palpable: an escalating mix of confusion, pride, and humiliation.
