A woman in California was filmed launching into a racist and hateful rant about ‘killing’ black people.
The language she used, as well as the threat of violence, could bring about criminal charges, according to reports.
The woman was later identified as 49-year-old Heather Patton, who updated her Instagram to request that she is not contacted, and offered an apology for her actions, saying she was ‘intoxicated’ at the time. She also revealed she had been fired from her job.
You can watch it here:
During the video, the woman can be heard saying she would kill black people if it wasn’t illegal.
The Los Angeles Police Department said a hate incident report was taken following the outburst, according to CBS LA.
A witness to the event tweeted: ‘It was quiet in CVS & then someone just yelled the n-word and then it was quiet again & then that woman started screeching racist stuff towards a Black woman (who shot that video). There was no build-up or prior altercation.’
Another witness said: ‘I’m extremely surprised to see it in Eagle Rock, because there’s a whole bunch of all kinds of minorities here. That’s all I can say, I’m surprised to see it here.’
Posting on Instagram after the incident, Patton apologised for her words and actions.
She wrote:
I hope the world knows we all as human beings have all made mistakes and gratefully regretted them later in life. I as a human made the choice to say some words that I should’ve NEVER let come out of my mouth.
I will no longer ask for forgiveness because what I did as a human was very inhumane and disgusting.
African Americans help build this very country that I am living in and I hate that I insulted the millions of them.
I have lost my job which I totally would agree on as well for the reason I have been let go. Please allow me to rekindle the love we shall all share amongst each other.
A spokesperson for CVS, the store where the incident took place, said the customer was removed from the shop and the company is now cooperating with police.
They told the New York Post:
We are committed to maintaining a welcoming and diverse environment in our stores to help ensure that all customers are treated with respect and dignity.
We condemn, in the strongest terms, the behavior of the customer seen in the recent social media video.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.