A Minnesota woman who shouted racial slurs at a Black child with autism at a park, and then raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on a crowdfunding website, is facing charges of disorderly conduct.
Video showed Shiloh Hendrix yelling at the 5-year-old Somali boy at a playground in Rochester in April after he purportedly took an applesauce pouch from her diaper bag.
Rochester is about 90 miles southeast of Minneapolis.
The Rochester City Attorney’s Office said the case “involved a large amount of evidence and required careful consideration of potential charging options across multiple offices.
“Given the sensitive and complicated nature of this case, along with the high level of public attention, completing the necessary reviews and conversations with the victim’s family took longer than usual,” it stated.
In the video, Hendrix can be heard saying she can call him [the slur] “if he acts like one” and threatening to hit the boy because “he took my son’s stuff.”
She’s since raised nearly $800,000 to “protect her family.”
At the time, the Rochester NAACP called for the woman to be charged, and started a fundraiser of its own for the family, which raised about half as much as Hendrix’s.
The charges must be approved by a district court judge.
“This was a situation that deeply affected many people, especially our communities of color, and caused real turmoil in our community,” Mayor Kim Norton said in a statement. “We acknowledge the lasting impact this incident has had, not only on those directly involved and across our community, but also in the broader conversations happening at the state and national level. These moments remind us of the complexity and far-reaching impacts of situations like this. The City remains committed to staying engaged and proceeding with transparency and care, continuing efforts that support accountability and progress in Rochester.”
