A Deep River, Connecticut mother was furious after seeing a video of her 11-year-old son, who appears to be a boy of color, being pushed off his bike by a White male adult and being told to "get the f'k off your bike."
Daniel Duncan was seen falling to the ground after 48-year-old Jameson Chapman deliberately shoved him without provocation.
A separate video from the same day showed the sixth-grader biking with his friend and being approached by Chapman, who asks the boy, “Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in Connecticut?”
When Duncan responded, "no," Chapman told him to “get the f'k out of my town.”
The boy's mother, Desiree Dominique, believes the incident was racially motivated.
Dominique said she felt "rage" after watching the video of her son being physically assaulted.
“I watched a couple seconds of the video and I went into total shock," she said, adding, "I could not contain my anger."
Warning: physical assault.
You can watch the Fox 61 news coverage, here.
Family alleges racism after Deep River man arrested for pushing 11-year-old off bikeyoutu.be
The boy is now afraid to leave his home after having experienced the violent encounter with Chapman.
“I feel very upset. I feel anger. I feel sadness. I feel a sense of powerlessness," said Dominique.
Social media users were also disgusted by what they saw.
This was not the first time her sons were targeted since moving to the community four years ago.
Prior racially-motivated incidents included Dominique's other son being shot at with a pellet gun by teens in a car. Both her sons have also been subjected to verbal attacks at their school.
The frustrated mother told the news station:
"The issue of racism is very prevalent in this area. I see it every day."
The biking encounter happened after the town's message board about the local Memorial Day parade was tampered with to include "Trump 2024" followed by two derogatory terms aimed at people of color.
A local resident reported the message to the town hall.
The words have since been changed and replaced with, "sad."
Town First Selectman Angus McDonald said this type of behavior was unacceptable and was not a representation of the vast majority of the Deep River community.
“This is something that we all need to address and should start at home,” said McDonald.
“It’s horrible. No young person should have to suffer from an older person bullying them anyway and throwing the racism into it, it just muddies the water even more.”
In spite of the recent altercation, Dominique encouraged her boys to feel like they belong to the Deep River community by reminding them "that they are not their skin tone."
She emphasized:
"I remind them that they are not their body."
Regarding the community of Deep River, she had this to say.
“I would like to see change here. This is a very beautiful, beautiful space."
“If people have issues with prejudice and racism then that’s something that they have to tend to further own growth.”
Chapman was arrested for assaulting the boy and he faces third-degree assault, risk of injury to a child, and second-degree breach of peace charges.
He was released from custody on a $10,000 bail.
