Three people are in custody after a home invasion the victims allege was racially motivated.
In the Detroit suburb of Walled Lake, Michigan, a mother and her two sons were startled from their sleep early Monday to discover that intruders had broken into their house. The unidentified family believes their home was targeted because they are Black.
The 13-year-old son woke up around 12:30 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside the home and stirred his 9-year-old brother awake.
Two men and a woman, accompanied by dogs, had kicked in the family’s front door. According to WDIV, the group also possessed a knife and a club.
Moments later, the children’s mother was in their bedroom calling her husband, who was working the nightshift in Detroit.
“I can hear everything, them kicking and banging down the door, whatever they were doing,” the husband said.
As he remained on the phone with his wife the husband who says he then overheard, “We’re going to kill you n-ggers” said he immediately told his wife to “get the gun.”
The gun is heard going off in video footage of the break-in as the two boys can be seen hurrying to safety.
“I heard the first shot and that’s when she — they were in the house,” the husband said. “I can hear the guy saying, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ The N-word and all that.”
“Me not being there, it was scary,” he told Fox 2.
The husband said he rushed home, arriving in time to find out that police had three white people in custody.
It is not certain if the case will be investigated as a hate crime, however the incident left considerable property damage in its wake.
The husband said that he knows that racism was at the root of all the destruction caused. “It was a hate crime,” he told WDIV.
“They knew that we were a Black family. I’m always on my motorcycle,” the husband added.
He also said that he was thankful that his wife knew how to use a gun and was ready to wield it at the first sign of trouble.
“My wife did what she had to do,” he said. “When you have kids you do what you gotta do.”
As for his sons, the father told Fox 2 that he has been frank with his children about the break-in.
“They know we don’t live in a perfect world,” he said.
