Salesman says cop pulled a gun on him and had him arrested because he was black

A 37-year-old door-to-door salesman claims an off-duty cop pulled a gun on him because he's black, reports the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 

Omar Segura knocked on the door of 45-year-old Sam Priyamal De Sylva, an officer with the Pasadena police department. De Sylva told Segura that “Nobody wants you here.”

The encounter quickly escalated, with the cop pulling a gun on him, Segura testified in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“It was a very surrealistic experience,” Segura said. “I couldn’t comprehend how this could have occurred.”

He raised his hands and dropped to the ground. Nevertheless, De Sylva called the police on him, accusing him of attempted burglary.

“He’s telling the (sheriff’s deputies) I’m trying to commit a burglary when all I’m doing is trying to sell something,” Segura said.

Segura described the experience as "humiliating."

“Just imagine being arrested in front of the neighbors. Just because I was an African-American who happened to be in the neighborhood,” he testified.

Officer de Sylva denies that his actions were racially motivated.