It started routinely enough.
“It was a traffic issue,” Cheektowaga, New York, police Lt. Brian Bzibziak said to Buffalo TV station ABC-7. “Somebody came off a side street, they weren’t happy, and it led to the road rage incident.”
For 34-year-old Justin Goodrich, his alleged inability to control his temper and suppress his racial animus cost him his job and, at least temporarily, his freedom. For the other driver involved in Tuesday’s incident, Adreana Jemison, who was taking her 10-year-old daughter to school, the encounter with Goodrich won’t soon be forgotten.
“It’s still unreal,” Jemison told ABC-7. “As soon as I got onto the lane, he was already on the horn. … I looked at him, gave him the finger and said [expletive] you. It went from there, like he already came up evil. … He looked at me, rolled down his windows, and said, ‘It’s always you people, always you [expletive].’”
Nearby security camera footage showed two cars, belonging to Goodrich and Jemison, stopped at the red light at the intersection of Union and George Urban. Adreana’s 10-year-old daughter Aleana apparently was in her mother’s passenger seat. Jemison alleges Goodrich choked her daughter.
“He starts laughing, he came at me so angrily, and he looked so evil,” Aleana recalled of Goodrich said. “I didn’t do nothing wrong. He just went up to me and he was pulling my shirt. He was on my neck, and I felt like I was going to pass out.”
Jemison, who is Black, said by the time she got out of the vehicle to confront Goodrich, he had returned to his car. She recorded her pursuit on video.
“I needed some sort of knowledge about who he was, because he assaulted my daughter,” Jemison said.
She followed him to his home, where Goodrich promptly responded with more racial taunts directed at Jemison and her daughter.
@kenidra4humanity I am posting this to bring awareness to this story for this family. This happened in Buffalo NY while taking her daughter to school at 6:59 AM. The mother, Adreana Jemison, described the incident in a fb post. She said he pulled up aside them and started ch*king her daughter while saying “I’m sick of you people you n*gg*rs of course it’s you cutting me off.” NEVER in any situation is this ever okay!!! Imagine how traumatized this baby and her mama is. And yall say racism doesn’t exist? It’s crazy how many people raised money for the other woman who called the black child an N word too recently. These racists aren’t hiding any more. This mama needs help our support. She went to the Buffalo PD and they are stating that it wasn’t a hate crime. How isn’t it??? Justin Goodrich cannot get away with this yall. TikTok do your thing. We cannot look away from this. #justingoodrich #endracism #foryou #fyp ♬ original sound – kenidra flamenco | ftm 🤰🏽
“You put your hands on my daughter and you thought I wasn’t going to follow you,” Jemison can be heard telling Goodrich, who was subsequently arrested Tuesday on charges of second-degree harassment, criminal mischief, and endangering the welfare of a child.
He was arraigned Wednesday morning, according to the district attorney’s office, and is due back in court in July.
“You touched the wrong ‘N-word,’ ” Jemison says to Goodrich on her video.
Goodrich’s former employer, United Refrigeration, told ABC-7 he has been fired.
“As soon as the Company learned of this incident the afternoon of May 6th, the Company took immediate action,” United Refrigeration said in a statement. “The Company placed the employee on leave and initiated an investigation into the matter. His actions were inconsistent with the values and policies of the Company and, as a result of our review of the matter, the person who was the subject of the investigation is no longer employed by United Refrigeration.”
Police, meanwhile, are still reviewing the incident, and more charges could be forthcoming.
“So glad you and yours are okay! take this ALL the WAY child endangerment, assault, hate crime etc…” wrote one TikTok viewer. “Civil suit get that house IF he owns it.”
Another noted how racists are increasingly emboldened, no longer afraid to publicly dispense the epithets and hatred.
“They are NOT getting BOLD…. They already ARE!!” she wrote. “Start handling these things when they happen and start showing them we are not to be played with. We have more support than we know.”
