*A viral video showing an older white male seemingly choking a young Black man has sparked outrage online and protests in one Milwaukee community.
A passerby named Deangelo Wright captured cellphone video of the unnamed white resident grabbing the youth’s throat after an alleged theft of a bicycle, the New York Post reports. The incident occurred on Oct. 10 along South 25th Street, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“This kid over here, one of his friends stole a bike right out of a friend of mine’s yard,” the white man says in the video.
“Let go of his neck! He’s not going anywhere,” Wright is heard saying in the clip.
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Wright noticed the confrontation while driving by and felt compelled to intervene.
“I hurried up and got out my car and intervened as quick as possible to kind of figure out what was going on,” Wright told Fox 6 News. “I got his hand off of his neck and was just trying to understand what was going on.”
The uncle of the young man in the video said his nephew is disabled but did not specify the disability.
“Why would you come out in the middle of the street and choke? You don’t know if that’s a kid or not. You don’t even know his age,” uncle Ricky Hale told Fox 6. “He’s just a person that has a disability that, he didn’t deserve that, and he never said he stole the bike.”
The footage shows the white man standing over a blue bike while ranting about a green bike being stolen. The Black male denies stealing the bicycle.
“He was shaking. He didn’t really know what was going on, like he was confused,” Wright told WISN 12 News about the young man. “I was telling everyone, God puts you in the situation for a reason, and I think that was for that young man’s sake,” he told the station.
Community activist Vaun Mayes said the accuser “has to get charged,” the Journal Sentinel reported.
“It’s time that somebody send some type of message that this stuff won’t be tolerated,” Mayes told the paper. “If that guy hadn’t intervened, who knows how that would’ve turned out. I think the city and the police department need to take a strong stance on this.”
According to NPR, no injuries resulted from the incident. The Milwaukee Police Department said the incident remains under investigation. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office will reportedly review the case for any potential charges.
At least two protests have been held outside the white man’s home, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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