A Tallahassee father and his 10-year-old son were victims of a recent aggravated assault that some are calling a racial hate crime.
The case has picked up by multiple media outlets such as B.E.T, the-shade-room, Black Lives Matter social media outlets and more.
The Black Tallahassee natives were shot at while returning a moving truck to a U-Haul facility on Apalachee Parkway. They filed a lawsuit last week in Leon County Court against the owners of the U-Haul franchise who also own the shopping plaza. One of their attorneys is Charles Gee, a graduate of FAMU’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication.
According to police documents, an officer was close by the scene when gunshots were fired at the victims. As the officer approached the scene Beverly and Wallace Fountain, who are white, were driving away from the scene with a gun. The Fountains, who are the owners of the plaza, were charged with aggravated assault.
The victim, Charles McMillon Jr., said he was terrified for his life.
“Enough is not enough. More must be done,” McMillon, a local business owner, said.
“As stated in prior interviews my only concern was my son. My son is extremely too young to experience a traumatizing event as such, especially over stupidity. I am glad me or my son were not injured or possibly killed,” McMillion said.
The daughter and sister of both victims, Chakiyah McMillon, is a third-year accounting student at Georgia State University.
“It is sad to say but this is our new and old normal against black men,” she said. “We see it every day, but we don’t really feel it until it hits home. My whole life could’ve changed from an ignorant ‘thought.’ The people who mean the most to me could’ve been taken from me forever for nothing,” she said.
“My brother is only 10. He shouldn’t have had to go through this. Neither of them nor any other victims of racial injustice should have. All in all, it makes you just want to love on them harder and cherish them as long as you can. Seems like we have no say so anymore,” McMillon added.
A family friend of the victims, Timmy Bruce, a business owner and graduate student from West Palm Beach, described the incident as a racial hate crime.
“This really hits close to home due to the fact that I am a student that grew up in a really bad stereotypical area and I thought and working on the progressing myself will help me escape this tragic incidents that are starting to be usual. I believe this was a racist hate crime due to the fact that the elderly white was couple arrested. Guns are not supposed to be used unless physical harm is done to you or your loved ones. The couple stereotyped the victims as criminals because the color of their skin. This is another example on how society has failed the minority community,” Bruce said.