Interracial Couple Viewing Christmas Lights Say They Were Accosted By White Man Claiming To Be Police
An interracial Georgia couple are detailing a disturbing encounter they had with a white man who claimed to be a law enforcement officer.
According to Atlanta station WSB-TV, the video they took is now in the hands of the Georgia State Patrol after the man claimed he was with the Georgia State Patrol. Kenisha Finch, who is Black, says she was with her boyfriend Matthew Gaylor, who is white, on Dec. 2 while driving in a Clayton County neighborhood looking at Christmas lights.
They say that a man then started following them and confronted them in their car. In the video you can hear Gaylor’s response as to why they were cruising the neighborhood.
“We’re looking at houses,” he said.
“You’re looking to buy a house here?” the man replied.
They say the man subsequently took their picture as they sat in their car before two other cars followed them and blocked them in.
Then the man in the truck continued his questioning.
“Where’s your tag on your car,” he asked.
“I don’t have one. I have an emissions and I got insurance,” Gaylor responded in the video, adding his tag was in the mail. The man then let him know who he was.
“I am an officer,” he said in the video.
“What’s your name and badge number,” Gaylor asked.
“Georgia State Patrol,” he replied, before proving his badge number.
The couple said the man also threatened them.
“He said if you come through my neighborhood again without a tag, I’ll arrest you and your Black thug and shoot you dead,” Gaylor said.
That statement is not in the video.
According to WSB-TV, the Georgia State Patrol and a spokesman said they do not have an employee with that badge number after contacting them.
The agency has also reportedly opened an internal investigation, saying it does not tolerate anyone trying to impersonate one of its officers, the station reports.
