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Man Sues DC, Saying Police Threw Away His Possessions During Protests

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A DC resident has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that police threw away his possessions, which forced him to move into a homeless shelter.

According to Dionte Coley, he was waiting for the bus on June 23, when police confiscated his backpack while they attempted to clear Black Lives Matter protesters from the area.

The 38-year-old man says he was not attending the protests and he was “simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Coley had been employed at a business as a cook before the restaurant closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. He stayed with his relatives outside the city during the lockdown, and he had just returned to the District to look for work “when he found himself unwittingly entangled in the clash between street protesters and police.”

The police allegedly took away his backpack, which contained his birth certificate, Social Security card, money, a phone, and keys to a storage locker where he kept his belongings.

A GoFundMe page was created to provide donations for Coley.

“A lawsuit has been filed on Mr. Coley’s behalf, but without these essential items, Mr. Coley has been unable to secure work or pay rent and has been living in an emergency homeless shelter. Any small donation for Mr. Coley will help him regain some stability, allow him to pay a cell phone bill, and get him back on a path to employment,” Susannah Townsend, the organizer of the fundraiser says.

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