Photo: Digital Vision
A Pennsylvania man has been fired from his city job after a viral video showed him hurling racial slurs and threats at a Black delivery driver.
The incident unfolded around 5 a.m. on Tuesday (November 5) when delivery driver Ross King Jr. was waiting outside a U.S. Postal Service facility in his box truck in Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
Video shows the man approaching King’s vehicle, repeatedly calling him the N-word, and challenging him to get out of the truck.
“I live on a golf course. I don’t live in the hood, brotha,” the man says at one point, before walking away.
King, who recorded the encounter on his phone, told WPXI that he started filming out of fear for his safety.
“There was no reason for me to get out of that truck,” King said. “Who knows—he could’ve had a gun, he could’ve had a knife, and it could’ve ended up bad.”
Swissvale officials later confirmed that the man in the video was terminated from his city job.
“This behavior does not reflect the values of Swissvale Council and Staff and will not be tolerated,” the borough said in a statement. “The employee is no longer employed by the borough.”
Swissvale Borough Council President Christopher Ansell condemned the incident as “racist” and “dehumanizing."
“If you want to come to work in Swissvale, you don’t bring that garbage with you," Councilman Kevin Hanes said in a statement.
Councilwoman Angela Stribling, who spoke directly with King, said he had simply been waiting to make a delivery when he was confronted.
“He has a business, and he was just delivering for his business,” she said. “He didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
Watch video of the incident here.
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