Security at the Marriott hotel in Detroit didn’t exactly say “cheers” to Obie Trice during a 2017 visit, the rapper says — and now he’s suing, alleging that he was racially profiled and tortured during the visit.
According to the suit, Trice visited the hotel with friends in April 2017, and the rapper accompanied a female in the party as she sought out a bathroom.
However, Trice alleges, hotel security “targeted and profiled” Trice “based on Plaintiff’s race and color,” and was told that the restrooms for hotel guests.
The suit says that Trice said he would be obtaining a room at the hotel, and was “badgered, taunted and followed throughout” the hotel. While discussing room rates with the hotel’s concierge, Trice says that he was taunted and disrespectfully addressed by security.
Trice says that, “confused” by the situation, he decided to bail on renting a room — and that, according to the suit, is when things really got ugly.
According to Trice, the security staff “ambushed Plaintiff without cause, and brutally attacked him.” The rapper says he was sprayed with mace, handcuffed and “humiliatingly dragged through the hotel and detained in a small room without medical attention or treatment.”
Trice also says that he was choked with water poured over his nose and mouth.
The suit says that the security staffers were “acting in the scope of their employment while torturing and falsely imprisoning Plaintiff.”
In addition to Marriott, the suit lists G4S Secure Solutions and Detroit Hotel Services as defendants. TheWrap has reached out for comment on the suit.
Alleging negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress and other counts, the suit seeks unspecified damages.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.