Amy Cooper, who falsely called 911 on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park, is suing her former employer over her firing

• Amy Cooper, who called 911 on Christian Cooper in Central Park, has sued Franklin Templeton.
• She said the company fired her without an investigation and falsely portrayed her as racist.
• She is seeking unspecified damages for race and gender discrimination, defamation, and negligence.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The white woman who falsely told the police that a Black bird-watcher had threatened her in New York City's Central Park has sued her former employer Franklin Templeton, saying it fired her without investigating the incident and falsely portrayed her as racist.

In a complaint filed on Tuesday night in Manhattan federal court, Amy Cooper said Franklin Templeton's actions "caused her such severe emotional distress that she was suicidal."

Cooper is seeking unspecified damages for race and gender discrimination, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.

Franklin Templeton, part of Franklin Resources Inc., did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for comment.

Cooper's May 25, 2020, dispute with the bird-watcher Christian Cooper, who is not related to her, drew wide attention after a video surfaced of her calling the police and saying, "There's an African American man threatening my life."

She had made the call after Christian asked her to put her dog on a leash.

Franklin Templeton fired Cooper the next day. The video has been seen on Twitter more than 45 million times.

In July, Cooper was charged by Manhattan prosecutors with filing a false police report, but the misdemeanor charge was dismissed after she completed a therapy program that included instruction on not using racial bias.

Christian, who recorded the confrontation on his phone, has spoken out against the charges against Cooper, calling it a "mistake to focus on this one individual" in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

"The important thing the incident highlights is the long-standing, deep-seated racial bias against us black and brown folk that permeates the United States," Christian wrote. "Focusing on charging Amy Cooper lets white people off the hook from all that."