"My intention was never to go viral," Travis Miller said. "My intention was to cover myself in case he called my employer and said I did something other than what I did."
May 14, 2020, 1:33 PM PDT / Updated May 15, 2020, 11:14 AM PDT
By Janelle Griffith and Doha Madani
A black delivery driver was brought to tears
while recording himself and a black co-worker as they were blocked from leaving a gated Oklahoma City neighborhood for nearly an hour by a white resident who demanded to know why they were there.
Travis Miller, who delivers home appliances and furniture, captured the incident Monday in a
Facebook Live video that has gone viral. The 37-minute video had nearly 300,000 views by Thursday evening and had been shared more than 10,000 times.
Miller, like many of those who commented on the video, believe the encounter was racially motivated.
Miller, 42, told NBC News that his customer in Edmond gave him the code to get through the neighborhood's gate. After completing the delivery and as they were trying to exit, a man who identified himself as David Stewart and a board member of the homeowners' association can be seen on the video questioning Miller and his co-worker about why they were on his street.
A man by that name could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Miller said in the video that he was trying to make a U-turn and that as he turned around, the man was blocking him in with a white Subaru.
"If I go around him, I'm going to have to drive on somebody's property and I don't want to make a bad situation worse," Miller said in the video.
Miller repeatedly asked the man to move the car.
"I'm not moving," the man said. "All you have to do is tell me where you're going."
Miller refused, saying he did not have to tell the man anything.
Miller said Thursday that he kept his seat belt on, remained in the truck and recorded the encounter to protect himself and his colleague.
"My intention was never to go viral," Miller said in a phone interview Thursday. "My intention was to cover myself in case he called my employer and said I did something other than what I did."
He said he also did not want the situation to escalate, because he feared that if police had responded, he would have been perceived as the aggressor.
About 30 minutes into the encounter, a second white man confronted Miller.
"All we want to know is why you're in here and who gave you the gate code," the second man said. "That's all we need to know."
After Miller refused to reveal his client's personal information, the man who identified himself as Stewart said he was calling police.
At one point in the video, Miller can be seen with tears streaming down his face. He wipes his tears away with a blue bandanna before he, too, calls police.
The man who initially approached Miller can be seen in the video calling police to withdraw a report after he got in touch with Miller's customer.
Miller said he also called Edmond police to make sure the man had withdrawn his report.
Miller said his customer defused the situation by telling the two men to move.
"He said he was sorry it happened," Miller said. "He said those guys are overprotective of the neighborhood."
Capt. Larry Withrow of the Oklahoma City Police Department said Friday that officers did not go to the scene because the original caller who reported that "there was a trespasser in the subdivision" at 4:21 p.m. called back about 30 minutes later and cancelled the report. Withrow said a third call was placed at about 4:55 p.m. by a man who said he wanted to know if it was OK for him to leave the property.
Story continued here:
Man blocks black delivery driver in an Oklahoma neighborhood
