Police in a small New Jersey town are looking for a fully bearded motorist who allegedly spat at a Black mother because she was taking too long teaching her daughter how to drive at a public intersection.
According to The West Windsor Police Department, on Saturday, Dec. 10, around 1 p.m., a man driving a blue or green Subaru Forester with a Christmas tree tied to the top hurled racial slurs and spat on an African-American driver in the middle of the intersection of Princeton-Hightstown and South Mill Roads, CBS Philadelphia reports.
Leslie Summiel Jr., the president of the Trenton Branch of the NAACP, said the incident unexpectedly cues up another lesson for not just the young lady but all youth: hate and growth cannot exist in the same space.
“We have to teach our young people that hate has no place in growth, and we will all experience growth when we delete hate out of the equation,” Summiel told CBS Philadelphia.
The case is being classified as harassment and bias intimidation, and police are searching for leads and calling for him to turn himself in.
The unidentified male, who the WWPD believe is about 5 feet 11 and 250 lbs., became irritated because the daughter was taking too long to pass through the intersection after the light turned green.
In response to her hesitation to cross the light, the middle-aged balding white man blasted his horn as he pulled up in the back of the other car, detectives stated.
The man then pulled into the right-hand lane while the daughter remained in the left-hand lane, according to police.
A preliminary investigation also reports as the two cars turned onto Princeton-Hightstown Road; the man flipped his middle finger at the mother in front of her child. She responded by returning the profane gesture.
The two cars stay on the road together for another half a mile before coming to a stop sign. The man’s impatience with her and her training of her daughter prompted her to roll her window down to plead her case. However, according to what she told police, instead of him being understanding, he shouted curse words and racial epithets before allegedly juicing up some spit and hocking at her in front of her child.
The woman notified authorities and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office’s Bias Crimes Unit took over.
As a community, West Windsor is seen as one of the most progressive places to live in the country, according to Fortune.com.
The township’s stock is high because of all the things families have to do, the fresh farmer’s markets, parks, the arts scene, and its proximity to Princeton. With a population of only 30,038 people, this Mercer County community is centrally located between New York and Philadelphia and is racially diverse.
While Blacks and Hispanics both makeup exactly 5.1 percent each of the population, whites tally in at 37.9 percent. The largest racial group is people of Asian descent, making up 48.9 percent of the people living in the area. The median household income, regardless of race, is $162,412, over three times the national median house income.
Det. Alfonso Robles has been assigned to this case and is asking anyone with more information that will lead to justice for this family to contact him at (609) 799-1222 or email at [email protected]. If anyone wants to leave information anonymously, they can do so on the department’s tip line at (609) 799-0452.
