A Florida man’s disturbing Facebook post has sparked widespread outrage online after he shared an image from a doorbell camera of a little Black girl and fantasized about shooting her.
Tyler Chambers is coming under fire after posting a picture of a young Black girl who visited his home in the Tampa suburb of Riverview and captioned it, “You’re lucky we weren’t home to shoot your a— dumb b—.”
Chambers shared the post in a community group, and it was screenshotted and reshared all over social media, quickly drawing backlash. Not only did people express shock and disgust that Chambers aimed violent threats at a child, but they also pointed to the racist overtones in his language.
Before deactivating his account entirely, Chambers deleted his post and later stated his case, alleging the girl was acting as a “decoy” for an attempted break-in at his home without sharing evidence to support the accusation.
“I saw that on my camera and have a wife and 7-month-old at home, which I will protect as you would. I was hot when I posted it which is why I deleted it right away I could have handled it a lot different,” Chambers wrote, adding he wants to locate the girl’s parents to apologize.
In response, the child’s mother, Beyond Shabazz, later posted the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s visit to Chambers’ home.
Shabazz explained that her family lives in the same community as the Chambers. On April 14, her 9-year-old daughter, Sincere, and 11-year-old niece came home from school around 4 p.m. and then left to go sell candy around the neighborhood, which is what prompted the visit to the Chambers’ home.
After seeing Chambers’ post go viral, Shabazz said she filed a police report.
Shabazz said that Chambers reached out to authorities with the hopes of reaching her to have a conversation, but Shabazz is rejecting his attempts at contact, displeased by the vitriol and lies he spread on social media.
She launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money for the legal battle ahead, stating that she wants Chambers jailed for the post.
“This could have been anybody’s child, and our job as parents is to protect our kids. My child does not feel safe in her neighborhood now due to this, and now every time she clicks on her Facebook or TikTok, she sees what this monster posted about her for the world to see,” Shabazz wrote. “I will not let this go under the rug. I promise I will make an example out of this fool.”
Shabazz said officers told her that since people have doxxed Chambers’ home address and place of work, he and his family fled their home.
Many social media users are also calling for Chambers’ termination from his job. A screenshot of his LinkedIn page that’s being shared widely online shows that he’s a general manager at a Mister Car Wash location in Tampa.
The car wash business has faced a barrage of complaints in the days since Chambers’ post began circulating online. Mister Car Wash has not yet responded to the complaints.
