Milwaukee police are investigating a citizen’s arrest between a white man who wrapped his hands around a young Black male’s neck, Yahoo reported.
Shocking video captured the moment when a 62-year-old white man, identified as Robert Allen Walczykowski, grabbed the neck of a 24-year-old Black male he assumed was involved with a neighbor’s bike being stolen, according to WISN.
An eyewitness intervened and began recording the October 10 encounter that has riled up the local community and led to protests.
The video shows the older man taking on the phone with 911 while holding the neck of the Black man, who insists he did nothing wrong. The white male can be heard telling the operator that he was holding the young man because he believed he stole a neighbor’s bike two days earlier.
“He had one of the younger boys by the neck, like kind of strangling him, so I got out of the truck, and I approached him, and that’s when I started recording him,” witness Deangelo Wright said.
Wright wasn’t sure what was going on when he drove by, but he knew it looked unjustified.
“There’s no reason why this man should be grabbing this boy by the neck,” Wright said. “There’s no excuse.”
Community activist Vaun Mayes organized a protest in response to the disturbing incident they believe was racially motivated.
“I mean, we still have a race and segregation problem here,” Mayes said.
While the white man made no racial comments in the video, Mayes believes the Black male’s race is what prompted the aggressive response from the white male.
“To grab someone by their throat, who he didn’t even know if that kid was the kid that stole the bike allegedly or what was going on, but you immediately went to that level of violence,” Mayes said. “That has a racial component.’