Police officer allegedly asked a woman to leave a D.C. public library because she was wearing a hijab

The D.C. public library system is investigating an incident in which a woman in a hijab was reportedly asked to leave the Watha T. Daniel library in Shaw.

A Twitter user first reported seeing the incident:

@dcpl ^[1] @DCPoliceDept ^[2] I just witnessed an officer harass a woman at the Shaw Library about her hijab and then forced her to leave the library

— Jessica Raven (@thejessicaraven) March 23, 2016 ^[3]

@dcpl ^[4] @DCPoliceDept ^[5] he even took out his handcuffs in an intimidating way. she was doing nothing wrong but reading quietly.

— Jessica Raven (@thejessicaraven) March 23, 2016 ^[6]

Rapidly, other Twitter users started asking what had happened and decrying the way the woman was reportedly treated.

George Williams, a spokesman for the library system, said that the library quickly identified the officer involved and removed him from the library branch. He is being interviewed about the incident, Williams said on Wednesday evening.

Williams said that the library does not know any of the details yet of the encounter between the patron and the officer, who is a member of the D.C. public library's own police force.

"It's important to us that everyone is welcome when they visit their library," Williams said. "We regret that this customer didn't feel welcome."

He said he hopes the woman will contact the library herself. Officials want to interview her about what happened, he said, and more important, they want to apologize.

The Washington Post was unable to immediately reach the person who posted about the incident on Twitter.

References

^{^} @dcpl (twitter.com)
^{^} @DCPoliceDept (twitter.com)
^{^} March 23, 2016 (twitter.com)
^{^} @dcpl (twitter.com)
^{< a href="#readabilityLink-5" title="Jump to Link in Article">^} @DCPoliceDept (twitter.com)
^{^} March 23, 2016 (twitter.com)