Andrew M. Stroth of the Chicago-based Action Injury Law Group said Marvia Gray was especially traumatized by how her son was treated given other high-profile incidents involving white officers and black men, including the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, another St. Louis suburb, in 2014.

His mother is in frail health with osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and other ailments, Stroth said, so Derek Gray took leave from his job to care for her at her home in Creve Coeur, Missouri, another St. Louis suburb.

At the Sam’s Club, Derek Gray purchased a 65-inch Sony Bravia flat-screen TV for his mother, along with other items, Stroth said.

Still, a Des Peres officer who was in the store followed Gray to the SUV and accused him of theft before being told by an employee that Gray had bought the TV, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said that while the Grays were at the store seeking a refund, four officers “violently and physically seized Marvia Gray and Derek Gray, throwing them to the floor, beating them, handcuffing them, then arresting them.”