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A white couple who pulled a gun on a Black woman and her teenage daughter in the parking lot of a Chipotle restaurant in Michigan was arrested Thursday and charged with assault.
The incident, which took place on Wednesday night, saw a shouting match quickly escalate into accusations of racism, before the white woman got a handgun from her car and pointed it at Takelia Hill, screaming at her to “get the fuck back.”
The entire incident, which took place in Orion Township, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, was captured on viral cell phone footage that police cited when they announced the charges against the couple.
Jillian Wuestenberg, 32, and Eric Wuestenberg, 42, were each charged with one count of felonious assault, which is punishable by up to four years in prison.
Eric Wuestenberg, who was listed on the Oakland University website as a veterans support services coordinator, has also been fired.
“We have seen the video and we deem his behavior unacceptable,” university spokesman Brian Bierley told USA Today, adding Wuestenberg "has been notified that his employment has been terminated.”
The incident began when Jillian Wuestenberg bumped into Hill’s 15-year-old daughter Makayla Green. Hill asks Wuestenberg for an apology, calling her “ignorant.”
When Wuestenberg refused to apologize, saying Hill and her daughter were blocking her from getting to her car, Hill accuses Wuestenberg of being racist.
“You cannot just walk around calling white people racist,” Wuestenberg responds from inside her car. “White people aren’t racist ... I care about you and I’m sorry if you had an incident that has made someone make you feel like that. No one is racist.”
After the woman rolled up her window, Hill feared that the car would hit them while backing out, she told Detroit News, which was the first to report the incident, so she banged on the car’s rear window.
It was at this point that Wuestenberg emerged from the car with the gun and can be seen cocking it as she points it at Hill.
“This is crazy! Trump [is] making it real comfortable,” Hill says, pointing out that Eric Wuestenberg was also armed.
Moments later the police arrived and arrested the Wuestenbergs at the scene.
“So this is America,” Hill later wrote on her Facebook page. “I’ve never in my life had a gun pulled out on me. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life I’m so shaken up.”
Cover: YouTube/Telegraph
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