Police are looking into a viral video that shows a white man grabbing a Black man’s neck in Milwaukee. The attack happened after the white man claimed the Black man stole a bike, NPR reports.
In the clip, which was taken on Oct. 10, a 62-year-old white man is on the phone saying that he saw a friend of the 24-year-old Black man take the bicycle. While he’s talking, his hand is on the 24-year-old’s neck and his legs are straddling the back wheel of the bike the Black man is riding. The person recording the video, Deangelo Wright, asks him to remove his hand from the younger man’s neck. He obliges, but gives Wright the middle finger as he does so.
The Black man said several times that he didn’t touch the bike.
Two children intervened and confirmed the 24-year-old’s story. The person recording, Wright, then told the kids to help find the bike in question.
Later, the white man says the stolen bike is green, but the bicycle the Black man is riding is blue. Multiple kids tried to tell the white man that the 24-year-old did not steal his bike.
Full video of original incident. Luckily this black man was there to intervene, these situations have historically ended badly for black people in Milwaukee and Wisconsin in general. 1st says HE stole it, then says his friend stole it. His name is Robert Walczykowski. CHARGE HIM! pic.twitter.com/DmgXP6MpY0
— VaunMayesMKE (@VaunMayesMKE) October 12, 2022
In a Facebook Live video with community activist Vaun Mayes, Wright said he was driving on the street where it went down and immediately thought the situation “looked crazy.” He originally believed the 24-year-old was a child, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports .
“I just would want someone to do it if it was my kid,” Wright said.
A man who claims he is the Black man’s uncle told Fox6 News that the 24-year-old lives with a disability. He did not elaborate on what his condition is.
The Milwaukee Police Department determined no one was injured during the incident and that an investigation in underway.
“The investigation … will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for review of any potential charges,” police said to NPR.
As the department has started looking into the incident, several protests have occurred outside of the white man’s home. Mayes organized one of them and is urging police to charge the 62-year-old.
“It’s time that somebody send some type of message that this stuff won’t be tolerated,” Mayes said. “If that guy hadn’t intervened, who knows how that would’ve turned out. I think the city and the Police Department need to take a strong stance on this.”
