A white Michigan woman who reportedly bumped into a Black teen was shown on viral video pulling out a pistol on the child's mother in an encounter Wednesday evening that led to assault charges for the armed woman and a man she was with. The encounter began when the child identified by The Detroit News as Makayla Green asked the woman to apologize for bumping into her outside of a Chipotle restaurant about 40 miles northwest of Detroit in Orion Township.
“Before I could walk into Chipotle, this woman was coming out, and I had moved out the way so she can walk out," Green said. “She bumped me, and I said, 'Excuse you.' And then she started cussing me out and saying things like I was invading her personal space.”
Green told the newspaper she called her mother, Takelia Hill, over because she was afraid. “I walked up on the woman yelling at my daughter," Hill said. “She couldn’t see me because her back was to me, but she was in my daughter's face."
Early video of the encounter picked up more than 11 million views before extended footage of the incident was released Thursday on YouTube.
WARNING: This video contains profanity and offensive language.
It started with Hill and another woman on the scene asking the suspect in question to apologize. She didn’t at that point in the video, and instead responded by challenging the women to “call the police.” “We will, but you’re not gonna sit there and violate a 15-year-old,” one of the women said.
The encounter escalated to profanity and accusations of racism soon after, and the assault suspects got into their SUV. “You can not just walk around calling white people racists,” the passenger said. “This is not that type of world. White people aren’t racist. No one’s racist. I care about you. I care about you, and I’m sorry if you had an incident that has made someone make you feel like that. No one is racist.”
Video shows the SUV rolling backward at one point, and a loud thump sounded. At that point, Hill accused the suspects of trying to hit her, and both the man and woman inside the vehicle got out and produced guns, the video showed.
“Get the f—k back!” the man yelled, holding a gun. The woman he was with pointed her gun toward the women and told them to “get away.” She also instructed the man she was with to call police. Hill agreed to the police being called and instructed another person off-camera to get the woman’s license plate. “Oh, both of y’all pulling guns out on me, OK,” she said at one point. The two went back and forth before the armed woman eventually shouted, “get the f—k back!” and got into the SUV.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said during a news conference Thursday that both the minivan's driver and passenger were arrested and are facing felonious assault charges.
Oakland County Executive David Coulter said in a statement posted on the township's website that he was "deeply disturbed" by the encounter. "This behavior is unacceptable," he said. "I wholly expect the prosecutor to bring charges that reflect the severity of the incident.”
Hill said in a Facebook post: “So this is America....I’ve never in my life had a gun pulled out on me let alone two and while I had my three daughters I’ve never felt so helpless in my life I’m so shaken up.”
WARNING: This video contains profanity and offensive language.