A retired police officer headed to Florida for his honeymoon was falsely accused of human trafficking by a traveler who spotted the ex-cop, who is Black, with his new wife, who is white, and believed he was witnessing a crime in progress, according to a bombshell federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
In September 2022, newlyweds Anthony Williams and Katsiaryna Shasholka were aboard American Airlines flight 2408, from their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, to Miami, when a fellow passenger became suspicious and reported the mixed-race couple to the cabin crew, the complaint states.
The passenger claimed Williams, 63, was transporting Shasholka, 34, against her will, an obvious example of racial profiling and abject discrimination, it says.
He “had no reason to believe… Shasholka was in any danger,” the complaint goes on, which includes a selfie the happy couple took during the flight of themselves smiling and enjoying themselves. Nevertheless, crewmembers took the passenger at his word and — without doing any of their own due diligence — told law enforcement that Williams was trafficking his own wife, according to the complaint.
“Upon landing, our clients were falsely imprisoned by American Airlines employees who escorted them off of the plane [and] were made to wait, confused and embarrassed, as the other passengers deplaned and walked by them,” the complaint goes on.
Williams and Shasholka were then questioned by officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department, leaving the two “humiliated,” the complaint contends, which says the entire interaction was captured on camera.
The experience has since caused the two “mental pain and suffering, sleeplessness, paranoia, panic attacks, fear, anxiety, [and] embarrassment,” the complaint states.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Williams told The Independent that he contacted American the next day and was told to file a complaint online, but has never heard back since. He said the episode continues to affect both him and Shasholka, who recently had a panic attack while the two were flying to Dubai.
“There was nothing in our interactions the entire flight that would be indicative of somebody who was being held against their will,” Williams said. “We were just two people having a good time.”
Attorney Jasmine Rand, a noted civil rights crusader who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen who was shot dead in 2012 by an overeager neighborhood watch captain, and George Floyd, an unarmed Black man strangled to death in 2020 by Minneapolis police, filed the suit on behalf of Williams and Shasholka.
“My client is a retired police officer,” Rand told The Independent. “He spent his life fighting crime, and now to be accused of a crime so heinous as trafficking his own wife is unfathomable. He is committed to fighting for justice for himself and for others that have suffered racial discrimination at the hands of American Airlines.”
An American Airlines spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The carrier has “a pattern and practice” of profiling racial minorities, according to the complaint.
It goes on to lay out details of three specific instances in which American allegedly mistreated Black passengers in recent years.
In September 2023, professional guitarist David Ryan Harris, who has played with John Mayer, Dave Matthews, and Mariah Carey, was accused of trafficking his own children on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, according to the complaint. Upon deplaning, Harris and his sons, Truman and Hendrix, were intercepted at the top of the jetway by an American Airlines employee and four police officers who had been notified by a flight attendant that called ahead “with some sort of concern that his biracial children were not his children, because they were unresponsive during an interaction with her,” the complaint states.
American later expressed regret for what had happened, saying in a statement, “Our flight attendant in question wanted to make sure that you were aware that they sincerely offer a heartfelt apology to you and your family for their actions, and the results that their actions generated.”
In January 2024, three Black men who did not know one another and were not seated together were kicked off American flight 832 from Phoenix to New York City after a white flight attendant complained about “offensive body odor,” according to a lawsuit the trio subsequently filed. Five other Black passengers were also removed from the aircraft, the mens’ complaint alleged. The case was later settled in a confidential agreement; American told The Independent at the time that it was “committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment to all customers.”
The following month, Pamela Hill-Veal, a retired Black circuit court judge, was seated in first-class aboard an American flight from Chicago to Phoenix but prohibited by a flight attendant from using the first-class lavatory. Instead, the 70-year-old Hill-Veal was instructed to use the restroom at the back of the aircraft, Williams and Shasholka’s complaint states. Shortly before landing, Hill-Veal used the first-class restroom anyway, after which the same flight attendant threatened her with arrest. After landing, Hill-Veal was escorted off the plane and met by police, who declined to arrest her, according to the complaint.
In a statement, American responded, “We strive to ensure that every customer has a positive travel experience, and we take all claims of discrimination very seriously.”
American Airlines and its employees “had a duty to protect [Williams and Shasholka] from false accusations of criminal misconduct and/or of misconduct that could lead passengers to being removed from the aircraft, threatened with arrest, subjected to racial profiling, harassment, discrimination, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” as dictated by federal law, their complaint argues.
Rand said on Tuesday that American Airlines “had no excuse for falsely accusing my client of human trafficking of his own wife, and it is yet another case of clear racial discrimination.”
“Acts of racial discrimination are widespread throughout American Airlines indicating a clear failure to train its employees and to hold them accountable when they engage in discriminatory misconduct,” she told The Independent.
The couple is demanding compensatory and punitive damages, to be determined in court, plus attorneys’ fees.
American has 21 days from January 9, the date Williams and Shasholka’s lawsuit was filed, to respond to the allegations.
