A Mississippi man has been arrested after viral video shows an attempt to run over Black kids while using racial slur.
On Sunday, July 24, Mark Hall posted a video of himself on his Facebook story.”
The video shows Hall from the driver’s seat of his car, heading down a street towards a group of nine Black teenagers on bicycles.
He laughs, saying “Aw, hell, 50 points!”
The children rush to move out of the way to avoid being hit.
Hall then calls the children “stupid n**gas.”
Tuesday morning, July 26, parents of the boys gathered at the Ripley Police Department demanding that Hall be charged for the racist and potentially deadly stunt.
Hall was arrested and now faces nine counts of simple assault and one count of attempted by physical menace to create fear.
“He could have hurt those guys. He could have killed somebody or anything, but he had no regard for those Black lives that were out there,” said Clarence Holmes, the father of a child in the video.
“We are living in a time that is supposed to be progressive. We are supposed to be progressive people, but we are still dealing with the same things that we were dealing with back when my grandparents and great grandparents were around.”
“This is not tolerated anymore,” said parent Willie Hill. “We’re not brushing anything out of the rug. We’re not going to look the other way.”
One of the teens involved, 15-year-old Carmello Thomas, said: “I moved out the way just in time. And then he just kept going and I saw him laugh.”
Curt Cohea, 16, is another one of the boys who was riding down the street that day.
He said he was simply trying to enjoy one of the last days of his summer when the driver sped towards them.
He said: ‘I don’t think it was right because we weren’t harming anybody. We were just riding around town and getting some exercise on our off day from sports to stay in shape for school.”
Jakai Holmes was another one of those teens, experiencing what he said should have been a fun day.
“It wasn’t right, we are just trying to go around and be kids and ride our bikes around the neighborhood and be together and it’s sad that people will try to take your fun away from you,” Holmes said.
The teens say the driver hit one of their bikes.
Parent Jimmy Brooks, whose two sons were among the group of friends, said: “I think people like that should get what they deserve when they do stuff like this. I don’t feel sorry for anyone who does stuff like this. And this community will not keep quiet about anything like that going on around here.”
Watch the video below.
A suspected white supremacist in Ripley Mississippi, named Mark Hall was arrested and charged with 9 counts of simple assault for trying to run over a group of Black children in his car, while referring to them as “n**ers”…
— 1st. Sgt. (Ret) US Army Combat Vet (11-B) (@IsAnAce) July 27, 2022
There should be federal hate crime charges on him. pic.twitter.com/SCui4nwLX4