A Mobile, Alabama, man has released another video to address the online criticism he has faced after staging a faux police-brutality encounter to propose to his girlfriend in a now-viral video.
Daiwon McPherson wanted to up the ante after failing to propose to his girlfriend, Shawna Blackmon, once before. So on Dec. 9., McPherson recruited the Mobile Police Department and some fellow bikers to make sure the love of his life said yes.
It all began with a phone call to Blackmon claiming McPherson was running from the cops on his motorcycle. However, when she arrived at the gas station where McPherson was allegedly pulled over, she found him on his knees surrounded by police officers.
Fearing for his safety, the woman can be seen in the last moments of the clip attempting to mediate the situation.
The officers had their tasers drawn as McPherson seemingly pleaded for his life. Then, the “suspect” whipped out a ring and asked Blackmon to marry him. She said yes.
In the days following the video’s release, McPherson has been roundly criticized for not only putting his now-fiancée in a scary predicament but also for being insensitive and tone deaf in light of the many Black people who have ended up dead in situations just like that one.
But McPherson stands by his decision to propose in the unorthodox manner.
“I know my girl, I know exactly how she act. That’s why I did it this way,” McPherson says in the rambling, 27-minute response video. “We both ride and bikers always have a problem with the police. Clearly, we’re both Black and you have the whole Black Lives Matter thing going on.”
Blackmon said she was nervous when she arrived at the scene.
“He planted in my head that he had a gun,” she says. “Because he said that he was going to put the gun in my car. So, when I got out the car and seen that he was getting chased by the police, I had so many things running in head. … Then, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to jail. They might shoot him.'”
But she said, unlike what people are saying online, she wasn’t crying because she was scared. She said she was crying because of the effort and thought he put into trying to surprise her and because she realized at that moment how much she loves him.
Here is the full proposal:
