A video of an incident shows a young man reportedly defending his California neighborhood after a violent suspect allegedly attempted “bullying people” on the street. Is he a hero or did he go too far? Watch and decide.
The advocacy group Black and Asian Souls Unite (BASU) posted a video of an incident that reportedly took place in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile area. In the footage, an unidentified black man is seen pointing a handgun at another black man as he lambastes the guy for “bullying people” on his street. According to BASU, which posted the clip to Instagram, “The guy wearing all black attempted to [carjack] an elderly Asian man.”
Although the footage does not depict the alleged carjacking, it does capture the aftermath as a good Samaritan responds to the purported crime. Armed with what appears to be a handgun, the young black guy, seen wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, decided to intervene after the suspect — another black man — allegedly tried to hijack the elderly Asian man’s car.
The good Samaritan, who wishes not to be identified, can be seen pointing the weapon at the alleged carjacker, effectively forcing him away from the victim, Yahoo News reported.
“Get the f*ck off my street!” the Samaritan yells before firing a warning shot. “You come around here bullying people on my f*cking street, n*gga?” he furthers. “F****** picking on an old a** Asian man,” the man concludes as the alleged carjacker continues walking away from view, according to The Blaze.
The threats, coupled with the warning shot that was seemingly fired into the air to demonstrate just how serious he was, prove effective as the suspect appears to throw back what is presumably the Asian man’s car keys at one point. Telling the alleged perp to “walk,” the man continues to keep the suspect at bay by pushing him on the back multiple times until they reach a safe distance. Meanwhile, voices in the background can be heard as the incident continues to unfold.
“Thank you,” yells one of the voices, presumably that of the Asian man who was nearly carjacked, after his rescuer passes on his car keys.
Although the particulars of the incident were initially few and far between, an updated version of the Yahoo article included more details.
“Miracle Mile Zone 7 Rep. Thao Tran, who also serves as the chair of Public Safety & Wellbeing Mid City West Neighborhood Council, revealed that the incident happened on April 27 of [2022] … south of the intersection of Wilshire and Ridgely in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile area,” the outlet reported.
According to Rep. Tran, a Mid-City resident provided the footage to a Los Angeles Police Department volunteer. However, The Blaze reports, “It is unclear whether the incident was ever prosecuted or whether local law enforcement ever conducted a further investigation of it.” Even so, Tran explained that she felt the need to share the footage in hopes of raising awareness after reviewing the footage.
“This video was provided by a resident, to one of my fellow LAPD volunteers,” Tran explained. “When I reviewed the video, I felt strongly that it had to be shared.”
The video and actions captured within it have been described as “true allyship” as the unnamed good Samaritan was hailed a hero for preventing the carjacking that purportedly targeted an elderly Asian man. Indeed, the footage drew an overall positive response from the public as the intervention was seen as a show of allyship between the Asian and Black communities:
“The man yelling, ‘thank you.’ I thank him,” journalist Lisa Ling commented.
Actor and producer Will Lex Ham chimed in, “Yes! THANK YOU!”
“This is amazing. Please please please keep up this energy on BOTH sides. We’re in this together yall,” user @soft.baked wrote.
User @ryangenji declared, “True allyship!”
“Good man. Dim sum or Korean BBQ on me,” user @laphilip.kai offered.
While we also commend the good Samaritan for defending his neighborhood and the would-be carjacking victim, we would be amiss not to mention that it is never wise to fire a weapon into the air. Other than that necessary caution, we applaud this man for standing up and defending the innocent against crime in his community. Job well done, sir.
