A video filmed this week in Minnesota Park appears to acknowledge that a white woman used racist slur against a black youth accused of taking items that belonged to her child.
Sharmake Omar, 30, the man who recorded the video, said in an interview Friday that the 5-year-old was called the N-word by a woman on Monday.
“The Rochester Police Department is aware of the video posted on social media and received multiple calls related to it,” said Friday. “We gather information and actively investigate the issue.”
When Omar saw a woman denounced the child of Somali heritage, a background he shared, he intervened, and she turned her obvious anger towards him and was filmed on video using slurs repeatedly.
In a video verified by NBC News, the woman apparently taking her child away responded “Yes” when asked if she called a slur to the young man.
The man accuses a woman of using racial slur towards young children at a playground in Rochester, Minnesota on Monday. (Courtesy Sharmake Omar)
“He took my son’s,” she said.
Omar asks if he “digs” the children’s belongings in the park.
The woman replied, “If that’s what he does,” the video shows.
In that video and in an interview Friday, Omar said the child has an autism spectrum disorder. He knows the parents of the boy who said he was from Somalia and they oversee the three other children in the park.
He said his parents expressed support for prosecuting women, where possible.
“That little boy was… visibly upset by the incident,” Omar said.
Omar said when he intervened, a woman he had never met before said that he and his wife should not have more children as he and his wife are drains of the welfare system.
Minnesota has a long history of supporting and resetting international refugees accepted by the United States.
In 2023, Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office in D-Minnesota estimated the number of people in the state with more than 86,000 people. On Thursday, the Rochester Congressional delegation praised Omar for “starting and protecting one of our youngest community members,” and issued a joint statement denounced “these sleazy acts of racism.”
The NAACP Rochester Chapter also said in a statement Thursday that it was “in solidarity with the affected children,” suggesting that interaction with the juvenile could have been a hate crime to video-search and request the offices of police, Rochester City attorneys and the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office.
The Rochester branch said Monday’s incident was one of several recent examples of “an disturbing increase in racially motivated behavior” in more than 122,000 cities, and is perhaps best known for being the home of Mayo Clinic and its world-renowned hospitals and research.
“What happened in the park is another painful reminder that hatred continues to exist,” the statement said.
Police are investigating after a video showing a white woman using racist slur towards black families at a playground in Rochester, Minnesota, went viral.
Protesters are expected to gather on Monday to protect our children, hosted by the Rochester Action Peoples Community.
Minnesota law defines one type of attack as an action taken with “intention to cause fear.” Apart from that, it states that a hate crime occurred when someone was assaulted because it was a misdemeanor “because of the victim’s actual or perceived race.”
Attempts to contact the woman in the video, confirm her name, and talk to her family have so far been unsuccessful.
NBC News’ Austin Mullen and Caroline Radnowski contributed.
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