A 21-year-old man is cur­rent­ly being held with­out bond in a Volusia County jail after he was arrest­ed for point­ing a gun at a Black fam­i­ly in traf­fic, unprovoked.

The vic­tims, a Black moth­er, father, and their two chil­dren under the age of 12, told Volusia County deputies that on Sunday, June 27, a stranger fit­ting the descrip­tion of Nicholas J. Gordon in a 4‑door yel­low hatch­back pulled up to the family’s car and pro­ceed­ed to ter­ror­ize them. According to CBS 12, the man jumped out of the pas­sen­ger seat, pulled a gun on them, and threat­ened “I will kill you n — -s.” Three oth­er peo­ple were in the vehi­cle with the sus­pect at the time

No phys­i­cal harm came to the fam­i­ly, which attempt­ed to dri­ve away, afraid for their lives, but was pur­sued by the sus­pect. When the pur­su­ing vehi­cle caught up to the fam­i­ly, “the dri­ver stepped out of the car and yelled more obscen­i­ties at them before get­ting back in, turn­ing around and flee­ing,” accord­ing to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office press release.
The vic­tims drove away from the inter­sec­tion try­ing to get to safe­ty, but the sus­pect vehi­cle chased after them and caught up with the fam­i­ly again when they got stopped in traf­fic at the inter­sec­tion of International Speedway Boulevard. The vic­tims told deputies the dri­ver stepped out of the car and yelled more obscen­i­ties at them before get­ting back in, turn­ing around and fleeing.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office iden­ti­fied Gordon’s vehi­cle via busi­ness sur­veil­lance videos, which show it fol­low­ing the victim’s car. He was pulled over when offi­cers spot­ted him not far from the scene of the inci­dent. Initially, he told offi­cers that he hadn’t been in town and that he didn’t have any weapons in the vehi­cle, before lat­er admit­ting that there was a gun in his lunch­box. Gordon assumed he was stopped because “that Black lady that brake-checked me, and then she start­ed try­ing to fol­low me…”

Volusia County offi­cers then told him that he and his vehi­cle fit the exact descrip­tion giv­en by the vic­tims who alleged: “a firearm being used in the vehi­cle.” Only after being shown sur­veil­lance footage by detec­tives did Gordon admit to his involve­ment in the inci­dent and blamed the fam­i­ly for attempt­ing to dri­ve off after hit­ting his car and attempt­ing to run. According to Gordon, he and his friends were chas­ing them “to try and exchange infor­ma­tion,” how­ev­er no reports of an acci­dent were filed and there was no vis­i­ble dam­age to Gordon’s vehicle.

When asked why he armed him­self dur­ing the sup­posed inno­cent exchange of infor­ma­tion, Gordon admit­ted that “he knew (the vic­tims) were African-American and he knew from past expe­ri­ences African-Americans can be vio­lent.” He also admit­ted that the fam­i­ly did “noth­ing” to him to make him feel threat­ened enough to draw a weapon, oth­er than being Black. Detectives con­clud­ed that the inci­dent was “clear­ly” a hate crime and that the fam­i­ly was tar­get­ed sim­ply because of the col­or of their skin. “At the con­clu­sion of the inves­ti­ga­tion, all evi­dence indi­cat­ed this inci­dent was clear­ly just a vio­lent hate crime where the sus­pect point­ed a firearm direct­ly at the vic­tims, a fam­i­ly in their car with chil­dren, who were sole­ly tar­get­ed for being African-American,” they wrote in closing

MEANWHILE IN MASSACHUSETTS

2 shot dead in Massachusetts may have been targeted because they were Black, district attorney says

An Air Force vet­er­an and a retired Massachusetts state troop­er who were fatal­ly shot near Boston over the week­end may have been tar­get­ed because they were Black, a dis­trict attor­ney said. The vic­tims were iden­ti­fied as retired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Dave Green and Ramona Cooper, a 60-year-old staff sergeant in the Air Force.
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins iden­ti­fied the shoot­er as a 28-year-old White man, Nathan Allen, and said inves­ti­ga­tors found “trou­bling” anti­se­mit­ic and racist state­ments in his writings.
Rollins said Allen stole a box truck and was dri­ving at a high rate of speed when it crashed into anoth­er vehi­cle and a home in Winthrop on Saturday. While his motive remains unclear, Rollins said Allen walked away from the wreck past sev­er­al peo­ple who were not Black before open­ing fire on bystanders Green and Cooper, Rollins said.

Cooper was shot three times in the back and died, Rollins said. Green was shot four times in the head and three times in the tor­so. Allen was then fatal­ly shot by police.
Rollins said the inves­ti­ga­tion was in the pre­lim­i­nary stages but vowed to uncov­er Allen’s motive. She said his writ­ings con­tained state­ments that were anti-Semitic and racist against Black indi­vid­u­als, but she did not pro­vide fur­ther detail. Rollins’ office lat­er said in a state­ment Allen “wrote about the supe­ri­or­i­ty of the white race” and “about whites being ‘apex preda­tors,” and drew swastikas.
The office said Allen was mar­ried and employed, had a Ph.D., and no crim­i­nal his­to­ry. Rollins said Allen was legal­ly licensed to car­ry a gun

She said it was a “sad day” for the community.

“These two peo­ple pro­tect­ed our rights — they fought for us to be safe and to have the opin­ions that we have, and they were exe­cut­ed yes­ter­day,” Rollins said. “We will find out why and find out more about the man that did this.”

Winthrop Police Chief Terrance Delahanty said “we have no tol­er­ance for hate in this community.”

Green served as a state troop­er for 36 years, Rollins said. Green retired from the state police in 2016, Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason told The Associated Press. He was out­side his home when he was fatal­ly shot, Mason said. A state police spokesper­son said Saturday that offi­cials are inves­ti­gat­ing whether the male vic­tim “may have been try­ing to engage the sus­pect to end the threat,” the AP reports.“Trooper Green was wide­ly respect­ed and well-liked by his fel­low Troopers, sev­er­al of whom yes­ter­day described him as a ‘true gen­tle­man’ and always cour­te­ous to the pub­lic and metic­u­lous in his duties,” Mason told the AP in an emailed state­ment. “From what we learned yes­ter­day, he was held in equal­ly-high regard by his neigh­bors and friends in Winthrop.”

By Erin Donaghue.