Two Southern 20-year-old women have been arrested in connection to a video posted on social media, threatening to kill Black people at a local store. Both women were charged with disorderly conduct after a prominent civil rights organization reported the incident to law enforcement.
On Thursday, June 23, the Tuscaloosa County Branch of the NAACP released a statement notifying the public of a video posted a day prior by a white Shelton State Community College nursing student. In the clip, the young woman threatened to “shoot a n-word in Walmart,” prompting the organization to submit a query to the Tuscaloosa Police Department to investigate the “domestic terroristic statement.”
The organization also contacted the school’s administration and learned even before their outreach, both the school and the police were working together to address the issue.
In a statement regarding the investigation, SSC stated, “The College is fully participating with law enforcement’s investigation and is dedicated to upholding its institutional values of integrity, accountability, respect, and responsiveness.”
By the end of day, Sydney Angela Holder was arrested and charged for her post and booked in the Tuscaloosa County Jail. By the next day, June 24, another white woman, Emily Elizabeth Cornett, was arrested and charged for the same video.
Making a terrorist threat, where one promises to engage in “violence against a person or to damage any property by use of a bomb, explosive, weapon of mass destruction, firearm, deadly weapon, or other mechanisms,” is a Class C felony n Alabama.
Many believe these young women were let off easy. One person stated on the NAACP’s Facebook, “A disorderly conduct charge I think it’s a lowball charge.”
Adding, “And she [Holder] probably keeps her gun/s also. To make good on her threat another day.”
Holder and Cornett were both issued $500 bonds and released.
It is clear that Holder was the featured principal in the video and uttered the vile threat and brandished her gun, but reports do not share what Cornet’s role in the video was.
Lisa Young, President of Tuscaloosa County’s NAACP branch said the reason she reached out to law enforcement and the school was out of concern for students who might be harmed by Holder — with the Buffalo Tops Market mass shooting, threats can’t be taken lightly.
She said, according to WBRC, “We live in a country where in the past 30 days, we’ve had over 50 incidents of gun violence, of mass shootings. And people are walking around terrorized.”
“They feel terrorized so, I actually considered it a domestic terrorist threat.”
