This week, Donald Corsi and Howard Hughes made headlines after a video captured them harassing a black teenager. Both men not only harassed the 16-year-old, but also distracted his car as he drove through their Florida neighborhood. The incident is said to have gone viral after the teenager’s father shared a recording of part of the interaction on Facebook. Based on NBC News, The confrontation occurred on June 14 before 6 p.m. in a Sanford, Florida neighborhood.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office arrested Donald, 52, and Howard, 61, on the same day of the attack. However, authorities later released both men. According to the arrest report, teenager Jermaine Jones was driving a 15-year-old friend when the attack began in the Lake Forest area. The report said the men “aggressively approached” Jermaine’s car with “verbal threats”.
Two men verbally assault teen and cause damage to teen’s car
But everything went beyond words. Per Jermaine, one of the men who used a large traffic cone to attack and dent the car door. Meanwhile, the other “throws a large, sharp-edged stone at the back seat.” Both Jermaine and his friend were still in the car at the time. The unidentified 15-year-old also told police that one of the men beat him with a traffic cone.
Jermaine and his friend were in the neighborhood visiting another friend when the men allegedly cut off his path and attacked. However, the video that is now going viral shows the incident after Jermaine and his friend got out of the car. Jermaine filmed the damage as two men surrounded him accusingly of “burning out, racing through [their] f ****** g neighborhood. A woman without a camera added to the incident, shouting “get out of this neighborhood” as she took the video.
“I was racist while driving through my friend’s neighborhood. They don’t like the way I’m driving, so they feel the need to hit my car with a hat and throw a rock through my window,” Jermaine shared in the caption of the video on Instagram. “All I want to do is de-escalate until the police come, because I don’t want to be accused without reason.”
Two men verbally assault teenagers and cause damage to the teen’s car
The viral video showed the extent of the damage, including the rock between the broken glass in Jermaine’s back seat and the dent in the car’s surface below the broken window. Donald and Howard now face felony property damage and felony counts of causing more than $1000 in damage. Additionally, Howard faces a minor battery charge, and Donald faces with a weapon charge, according to NBC.
Jermaine’s father, Columbus ‘CJ’ Jones, took to Facebook to thank the public for their support and demand a fee increase.
“My son reflected very well on me and kept his composure while filming, and I could hear him trying to defuse the struggle even as he was talking to the 911 dispatcher. Again. Thank you for your support and please continue to pray,” CJ wrote. “May God bless and protect all of us including those kids, neighborhood and men. But the charges need to be upgraded to exact charges because otherwise I would still go to jail with no money tied up. [unlike] surname.”
In one NBC In an interview, Jermaine’s mother, Niko Jones, reflected on similar incidents that ended in Black murders, such as Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. Sanford is also the city where Trayvon was shot dead by volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012.
“We as Black mothers have to have these conversations,” Niko said of Black families preparing their children to fight discrimination. “We’re scared.”
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