A South Carolina man has been charged after authorities say he admitted to sending death threats to a Minnesota prosecutor’s office that filed charges against Shiloh Hendrix, the woman who went viral after being caught on camera hurling racial slurs at a Black child on a playground.
Hendrix was recorded in April calling a 5-year-old Black child with autism the N-word multiple times after she alleged that he stole applesauce pouches out of her child’s diaper bag.
Hendrix justified her use of the slur by saying she can call the boy the N-word if “that’s what he’s gonna act like.”
Footage of the incident went viral online, triggering widespread backlash across the country.
What furthered controversy surrounding Hendrix was when she launched a GiveSendGo campaign after the incident, which raised more than $800,000 from supporters.
Leaders of the NAACP branch in Rochester, Minnesota, called for Hendrix’s arrest and launched a fundraiser for the boy who was targeted, which raised nearly $350,000.
It took four months for local prosecutors to charge Hendrix. Ultimately, they settled on three counts of disorderly conduct.
But many people took issue with the Rochester City Attorney’s Office’s charging decision.
According to a criminal complaint cited by CBS News, the prosecutor’s office stated that it “received many phone calls from across the world” that “expressed opinions about the charging decision.”
That includes several calls from a man in South Carolina who reportedly left one message in which he said he will “travel all the way to your f***ing state, to your f***ing city, and I will start murdering every last one of you,” the complaint states.
Prosecutors filed charges against Hendrix on Aug. 26. The man started calling the attorney’s office the day after.
Using phone records, investigators identified the caller as 25-year-old Austin James Garlington, and South Carolina law enforcement went to his home to notify him that Rochester authorities would be contacting him.
A detective from Rochester also called him to ask why he left the messages, and the man responded that “he was upset that Hendrix had been charged with a crime but agreed he would stop calling the city attorney’s office,” the complaint said.
According to KAAL, authorities charged Garlington with one felony count of threats of violence and two gross misdemeanor counts of harassment. He reportedly is due in court in Olmsted County, Minnesota, in May.
