Waterford — A Norwich resident has filed a complaint against the Waterford Police Department after a Dec. 20 encounter in the Crystal Mall parking lot left her fearing for her safety.

In the complaint, filed about a week after the incident, 26-year-old Megan Lanier-Gomez described what happened that evening and alleged that police racially profiled her and violated her Fourth Amendment rights.

Lanier-Gomez tells it like this: She had driven her mother’s Mercedes to the mall about 7 p.m. and parked it in an area of the lower JCPenney parking lot that was well-lit. The spot she chose allowed for space between her car and others, but wasn't isolated.

Before exiting her vehicle, she said, she paused to count her money, revisit her shopping list and text her sister and friends, whom she was planning to meet inside.

Suddenly, two vehicles pulled up at the front and back ends of her car, blocking her in. Lanier-Gomez watched with fear as somewhere between eight and 10 men dressed in jeans and hooded sweatshirts piled out and surrounded her car.

“My first thought was, ‘I’m being robbed,’” Lanier-Gomez said by phone last week.

But when the man who asked her to roll down her window leaned closer and inhaled, she caught a glimpse of his badge and realized he was a member of law enforcement.

First, Lanier-Gomez said, the man asked if she had seen someone jump the guard rail. She hadn’t — she’d only been there a few minutes.

Then he asked her if there were any warrants for her arrest, she said. Why was there money on the center console? Could he see her license?

She handed it over.

Lanier-Gomez said she never reached for her phone to record the encounter because she didn’t want to make any sudden movements. Family members later shared the story on social media, where it had garnered many comments and shares by Thursday night.

“I didn’t know what the purpose was for surrounding my car,” she recalled, explaining that officers were behind the car on both sides, some shining lights into her mirrors. “If they felt I was reaching for a weapon, I was afraid they would open fire from all directions and I would be killed.”

According to Waterford police Chief Brett Mahoney, the men were stationed at the mall as part of a holiday enforcement campaign that occurs in the town’s business district from time to time.

The undercover force, he explained, focuses primarily on preventing theft, but also tackles drug-related activity.

He wouldn’t discuss the specifics of how the force might respond should it deem someone suspicious.

Mahoney also said he could not comment on what happened to Lanier-Gomez. The department, he said, is turning her complaint over to the State’s Attorney’s Office and he doesn’t want to muddy the waters.

According to Lanier-Gomez, the cops left her after she heard a dispatcher on the radio say “she’s clear.” The officer who took her license gave it back and explained that they were trying to keep things safe during the holidays.

Lanier-Gomez phoned her mom, Tamara Lanier, and the two arrived at their Norwich home at the same time.

“Megan was beyond distraught,” Lanier said. “She was shaking and very upset.”

With her daughter on hand, Lanier called Waterford police. That’s when they learned from a lieutenant that it was Mahoney who had initiated the undercover officers’ response.

According to Lanier and her daughter, the lieutenant said the off-duty Mahoney and his daughter had just wrapped up shopping when, not long after seeing someone running from the parking lot, they drove past Lanier-Gomez’s vehicle and saw her in it.

Mahoney told the force they should probably check it out.

“You drive by with your daughter, see mine and conclude she’s suspicious?” Lanier said. “I question what is suspicious about a young person by herself texting in the lot of a mall days before Christmas.”

Mahoney said his department is in compliance with the state’s racial profiling laws. He said when independent researchers come around to conduct studies on racial profiling, Waterford police open their books. No such studies have indicated racial profiling is happening within the department, he pointed out.

The department also voluntarily sent officers to a joint training with New London police on cultural sensitivity a couple years back, Mahoney said.

“We understand that race is a hot-button topic across the country,” he said, adding that he places high importance on training. “Better trained, better educated officers show less use of force, less potential racial issues, et cetera. We’ve done a lot in that arena.”

Lanier arranged for a meeting with Mahoney, Waterford First Selectman Dan Steward and a few others last week. She decided to ask Steward to join the meeting when she learned of Mahoney's direct involvement in the incident, she said.

Lanier said she came away from the meeting with a feeling that Mahoney and Steward didn’t understand how the officers affected Lanier-Gomez or how much worse the situation could have been.

“I felt they were really unapologetic,” Lanier-Gomez agreed. “They didn’t believe it was a traumatizing event. They were just doing their job.”

Steward said he did not want to comment on the meeting or Lanier-Gomez’s complaint.

It was after that meeting that Lanier-Gomez decided to prepare her complaint. It was also then that she and her mother noticed Waterford police didn't have their civilian complaint form available online, which is required by law.

Lanier called the Police Officer Standards and Training Council, which relayed her concern to the department. According to Mahoney, the issue was resolved the day a representative of the council called.

He said it was an oversight that the form wasn't online and noted that the law requiring it went into effect in July 2015, while he was acting as interim chief but hadn't yet officially been named chief.

Lanier said in this day and age, with shootings of officers up by 52 percent and shootings of unarmed black people by officers regularly gaining widespread media attention, it’s important for police and minorities to communicate with one another and be understanding.

What if the next time a similar situation arises, Lanier pondered, the person in the vehicle has a concealed carry permit and decides to act on the notion that he or she is being robbed?

“For them not to be able to see the way they handled this ... could’ve resulted in a fatal event, that lack of understanding is very disturbing,” Lanier said.

Lanier-Gomez and her mother said they would have liked an apology. They hope, too, that officers in a similar situations in the future use different methods, like observing a person's behavior before approaching them and sending fewer officers at the outset.

“When you’re blatantly wrong, the humane thing is to at least show some sympathy,” Lanier-Gomez said. “I’m supposed to be able to put trust into these officers and I don’t feel like I can trust them.”

l.boyle@theday.com