Oregon Man Charged For Calling Black FedEx Driver Racial Slurs, Threatening Him

KEY POINTS

The incident took place in Aloha, Oregon on Sunday
The man yelled racial slurs at the victim and threatened him
The suspect had a gun pellet in his possession which was "indistinguishable from a real gun."

An Oregon man was arrested Sunday for yelling racial slurs at a Black FedEx driver and threatening him, authorities said.

The suspect, identified as Rodney Bryant, 68, was charged with bias crime in the first degree, unlawful use of a weapon, and menacing in connection with the incident.

The incident happened just before 1 p.m. ET when the Black FedEx driver was delivering packages near SW Cascadia Court and SW 188th Avenue in Aloha. Bryant came out of his house and stood before the victim’s truck, blocking the way. Bryant adamantly stood in the street and continued to hurl racial slurs at the victim, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The unidentified Black driver was able to drive off but Bryant pursued him in his vehicle and pulled up to him with his car’s door open. The Black man noticed a gun inside Bryant’s car while the latter kept calling slurs. Bryant told the victim that he was “not afraid to use” the gun, the sheriff’s office mentioned in the statement.

After the Black driver drove away and called 911, deputies arrested Bryant and recovered what was found to be a pellet gun with no orange tip, which cops described as "indistinguishable from a real gun."

Bryant faces five years in prison if found guilty of either the racial bias or the weapons charge as per the state’s mandate.

Fox News-affiliated KPTV-TV identified the victim as Akiel Horn, 22, who recently moved to Portland from California. "I’m still in shock," Horn told the station while speaking about the incident. "I didn’t know it was a BB gun," Horn continued. "I’m thinking it’s a real gun."

In October, two Washington men were charged with hate crime for chasing a Black driver and brutally beating him up. The suspects, identified as Eric Dean Wise, 33, and Travis Bryan Phillips, 34, told the cops that the unidentified Black driver rear-ended their car, which infuriated them and prompted them to chase him. The victim was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood on the roadside. The Black man suffered severe facial injuries and his eyes were swollen shut as a result of the beating.