After living in a gated community for eight years, Doctor Nnenna Aguocha a white man who parked his car in the community’s entrance stopped her from entering.

On June 18, Aguocha was returning home after a late shift and was startled when a man she had never seen before barred the entrance to her community with his car. Fifteen minutes into the incident Aguocha pulled out her phone and recorded the exchange. 

“Are you serious?” Aguocha asked the man as she walked up to his car. “Do you know what you are doing? You are racially profiling.”

The man, whose name is unknown, called the police on her, and so Aguocha did the same. When officers arrived, the man explained there had been recent robberies in the area with someone stealing air conditioning units. The community’s homeowners association, however, had not heard of any such incident.

“I absolutely think it was racially motivated,” Aguocha told 11Alive News. “When this altercation was going on, what went through my mind was this guy could do absolutely anything to me. He could shoot me dead on the spot because he was trying to protect the neighborhood, and the property and people would make up stories later.”

Aguocha used her gate entry code to prove to officers, and the man, she lived in the community. 

The man told officers he owned property in the community, but his actual home was in Roswell.

When considering the current climate around false accusations against black people, Aguocha feels many are often ‘emboldened to act upon their biases.’

“[They] do whatever they want to do because there are no repercussions,” Aguocha said. “I know that things like this happen all the time, and I am not exempt like that, so I’m not surprised.”

Aguocha is now seeking legal action against the man.