The Edmonton Police Service’s hate crimes unit has taken over the investigation of a racist rant that was caught on video.
An Edmonton man says he captured video of a woman unleashing the comments at him after a parking dispute.
Rahul Kumar called the incident “devastating.”
“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I was actually shocked.”
Kumar said last Wednesday afternoon, he was getting ready to leave for work from his south-side apartment when he noticed a car parked in the emergency lane was blocking him. He said he recognized the car as belonging to a woman who regularly visits his upstairs neighbour.
“I’ve requested her a few times not to do that because it gives a hard time to me and my wife who’s a learner, to back up our cars from the designated spots,” Kumar told Global News. “I just called the rental office… and the office girl came out and she went and spoke to her to move the car. Otherwise they have to get it towed because it’s in the emergency lane.”
Shortly thereafter, Kumar said he left his apartment again. As he was pulling out, he said the woman started yelling at his front window where his two-year-old son was looking out.
“I had to stop,” Kumar said. “That’s a natural response any father would do…. because I was worried she might do something else or she might get physical.
“My wife even came out… She’s pregnant and I didn’t want her to get involved with this.”
When the woman started hurling racial slurs at him, he pulled out his phone to record her.
In the video, she repeatedly uses an ethnic slur, criticizes the colour of his skin and mocks his accent.
“You can film all you want…,” she can be heard saying. “Go back to your f****ng country, man.”
The woman references a past incident and suggests it was Kumar who first boxed her in. Global News would like to hear from the woman in the video and has attempted to contact her via the person she was visiting at the apartment.
Watch below: An Edmonton man shared video he took that shows a woman shouting racist comments at him. It all stems from a parking dispute. Kim Smith reports. WARNING: Offensive language.
In an interview with CTV Edmonton, the woman said she’s not a racist and doesn’t regret what she said. She told CTV that Kumar is leaving out much of the story and that he has been the aggressor in their various confrontations.
“He went crazy and started banging on my window, telling me I’m f***ing stupid, telling me to move my f***ing car like he was parking patrol or something… his kid was in the car when he was acting crazy, (Kumar was) pounding on my window.”
She told CTV that police told Kumar to move his vehicle, which she alleged was boxing her in, or they would tow it. Kumar disputed that account and said a 911 dispatcher suggested to him that he move his vehicle until a bylaw officer could come by and sort the matter out.
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Kumar told Global News he has called 911 over the parking dispute before and reported the problem to bylaw officers. He said the first confrontation he had with the woman was earlier this month.
“I was trying to back up my car and she was parked right behind me,” he said. “And as a normal gesture, when you see someone is having a hard time, you move a little bit, right? She didn’t move.”
Angelique told CTV that Kumar pulled his vehicle up to hers, “nose to nose” and then turned his bright lights on before turning off his vehicle and leaving the lights on as he went inside his apartment. She said she did not move and then he came out, boosted his truck and turned it in a way so as to box her in.
He said he came out to ask her to move but she wouldn’t.
Kumar said arguments happen, but racial insults are never justified.
“I’m here, I’m paying my taxes, I’m working… what else should I do to be part of the country?” he said. “I want people to know that these things exist… we need to get to know more about it.
“It was stressful actually and a little depressing because I live here,” Kumar said. “That night I didn’t go to work because I was worried the whole night and we were looking out the window.
–With files from Global News’ Kim Smith
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