Woman claims she was racially profiled when she tried to use her neighborhood pool

A pool manager called the police when the situation escalated.

ByDominick Proto and Kate Hodgson
July 6, 2018, 3:12 PM

A black woman from North Carolina claims she was racially profiled at her neighborhood pool on the Fourth of July.

Jasmine Edwards of Glenridge, North Carolina, said she was trying to access the pool with her child when Adam Bloom, a pool employee, stopped her. Edwards, who recorded the interaction with Bloom on her cellphone, told him that she never had a problem entering the pool grounds in the past.

Bloom then called the Winston-Salem Police Department.

"We have a resident or a non-resident that's at the pool that refuses to leave," Bloom said in the 911 call. "We're just asking for formal identification." Bloom told the dispatcher she was welcomed at the pool if she showed identification.

“I feel this is racial profiling,” Edwards can be heard telling police in the video. “I am the only black person here with my son in the pool.”

Edwards then claims no one else was asked for their pool ID. Bloom replied that he will typically ask residents to show their ID cards.

Officers ask Edwards if they could use her card to access the pool. One takes the card and scans it by the lock.

“It turns green and it unlocks,” the officer says in the video. “There you go, sir.”

Edwards asks Bloom for an apology. He did not offer one.

Bloom later resigned from the Glenridge Homeowner’s Association, which oversees the pool. The Glenridge HOA issued an apology to Edwards and the community.

“We sincerely regret that an incident occurred yesterday at our community pool that left neighbors feeling racially profiled,” the company said in a statement. “The pool chair escalated a situation in a way that does not reflect the inclusive values Glenridge seeks to uphold as a community.”

A lawyer for Bloom told ABC News in a statement that Bloom has been pool chair for seven years and his role was to "work with members to set and enforce the pool rules and regulations."

Bloom was informed by a fellow pool patron and board member that Edwards had given a wrong address when asked where she lived, the lawyer said in a statement. When Bloom asked where she lived, Davis provided an entirely different address from what she told the board member, the lawyer said.

"As a result of the incomplete and misleading video of these events and the social media frenzy that followed, Mr. Bloom has received death threats, lost his job, and been forced to resign from the homeowner's association. He has had to leave his home for a safe location for him, his wife, and his three small children," the lawyer said.

In a statement to ABC News, Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said Officers Lazusky and McKaughan "resolved the issue without escalating the situation between either participants" and "was based on the Officers overall training and experience."

Request for comment to Edwards were not immediately returned.

ABC News' Alex Perez, Andy Fies, Devin Villacis and Rachel Katz contributed to this report.