Black delivery man blocked by white men in gated community in Oklahoma
A tense standoff led to a viral video when a man was detained for doing his job
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Travis Miller was just trying to make a delivery to a gated community in Ashford Hills, an affluent section of Oklahoma City. Instead, he was confronted by two white men, who blocked him in while demanding he tells them why he had a code to the subdivision.
READ MORE: Marc Lamont Hill says Ahmaud Arbery case similar to Trayvon Martin’s
As reported by Oklahoma’s Fox8 News, the standoff happened earlier this week when Miller was in the middle of a delivery. He was driving a van and was inside the gates when he was approached by a white man who identified himself as the president of the homeowner’s association.
Miller, who delivers for a home appliance and furniture store, was blocked in by the man who identified himself as David Stewart.
Miller captured the confrontation on Facebook Live and the video has since gone viral.
“I don’t care what your name is, move out the way,” Miller says.
The man who identified himself as Stewart kept Miller blocked in until another man joined them about a half-hour later.
“All we want to know is why you’re in here and who gave you the gate code. That’s all we need to know,” the second man says in the video.
The two said they’d be calling the police and if they did so, the police never showed up. It took the homeowner who received the delivery to come out and talk to the two men, who finally let Miller leave.
An emotional Miller called the police himself, fearful that some reprisal might take place even after he was allowed to leave.
“I don’t know what prompted him to, or what has happened in that neighborhood, for him to respond the way he did,” Miller told Fox 8.
“I just know that emotionally, it was hard to maintain restraint, especially when I’m dealing with death in the family, two family members within two days of each other,” he added. “I just did the best I could to make sure I didn’t make a bad situation worse.”
READ MORE: Note left at Arbery’s death site: ‘I should have stopped them’
Many think the confrontation was racially motivated. Fox8 News reached out to the homeowner who blocked Miller, but his phone number has been disconnected.
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