The man receiving the harassment apparently grew tired of it, and punched one of the white males in the face.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Police are investigating a bizarre incident at the Salem Center Mall Friday evening, that may have been racially motivated. A Salem-News.com employee was standing in a line at the mall's food court around 6:00 PM when a pair of white adults approached a lone black male adult in line.
The two white males who were described as "redneck" in appearance, walked up to the African American man and apparently began to harass him. This reportedly involved physically contacting the man and knocking the hat off of his head and our employee thought they heard the two white men refer to the man they were harassing as "boy".
A limited number of shoppers were immediately present in the area where this happened, and it is described as lasting about a minute. Although we do not know who the black male was, he appeared to have a woman and small child waiting for him at one of the tables in the mall's food court.
Based on the report we received, the man receiving the harassment grew tired of it within a minute or so, punched one of the white males in the face, effectively ending what appeared to be racial harassment.
Our employee who was off the clock at the time, watched all three men escorted from the mall by what appeared to be, a mall security guard.
The Salem Center Mall did not return calls to Salem-News.com over the weekend, but their security team did tell a Salem Police officer investigating the report that they did not recall a racial incident over the weekend.
Salem Police say they are investigating and did not drop their interest over the statement from the mall security officers who said they were unaware of what had happened.
If you know the individual who received the harassment, we would appreciate hearing from him. The police would also like to speak with this gentleman. Their non emergency number for reporting crimes is 503 588-6123. We can be reached at newsroom@salem-news.com.
Police Investigate Report of Racial Harassment in Salem Mall
Salem-News.com