A man in Deep River, Connecticut is facing charges of third-degree assault, risk of injury to a child, and second-degree breach of peace after allegedly pushing an 11-year-old child off of his bicycle in an incident on Monday.
A video of the assault shows the suspect, 48-year-old Jameson Chapman pushing sixth grader Daniel Duncan off of his bicylce while yelling, “Get the f*** off your bike.”
A seperate video from earlier that day showed Mr Chapman confronting Mr Duncan in a different part of the town, with Mr Chapman demanding to know whether Mr Duncan “[grew] up in Connecticut,” and, when answered in the negative, told him to “get the f*** out of his town.”
Mr Chapman has a prior conviction for third degree assault from 2018. He is slated to appear in court later this summer.
Mr Duncan’s mother, Desiree Dominique, said that her child is now afraid to leave their house. Ms Dominique told FOX 61 that her children face racism daily in the small Middlesex County town and that her other son earlier this month was shot with a pellet gun while riding in a car.
Middlesex County as a whole has for years been a Democratic stronghold — Joe Biden took more than 57 percent of the vote there in the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump — but it is also overwhelmingly white. In May, a Deep River town sign promoting a Memorial Day parade was changed to read “Trump 2024” over a racist phrase.
A town selectman told FOX 61 that Deep River is planning a series of public forums and workshops in the coming weeks to address racism in the town.
“I would like to see change here,” Ms Doninique told the television station. “This is a very beautiful, beautiful space. If people have issues with prejudice and racism then that’s something that they have to tend to further own growth.”
