Two teenagers in Woodsboro, TX are facing hate crime charges after dressing in Klan outfits, harassing and tasing a Black teenager while a White female classmate recorded the incident.
According to Texas Monthly, all four kids involved in the incident attend Woodsboro High School. The three boys all played on the football team together. The Refugio County District Attorney indicted the two boys Noel Garcia Jr. and Rance Bolcik
on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and tampering with evidence. A hate crime designation has been added to each charge. The name of the victim and the girl were not released.According to cellphone footage obtained by Texas Monthly shows the Black teenager backpedaling through a field while a figure wearing a White sheet with the eye holes cut out approaches him.
“That’s not funny. Stop!” says the Black teenager.
The girl, who is recording the incident, then tells the Black teenager “If you say their names, they’re gonna tase you.” After which the crackle of a stun gun being fired. “Get closer,” the girl says, and the gun is fired again as the Black teenager continues to back away.
“Surround him,” the girl says. “Surround him!”
Then a second figure in a white sheet and hood comes into the frame. In one hand, he’s holding a small purple device. A rapid-fire crackle rings out.
“Chill!” the Black teenager yells as the hooded figure with the purple device lunges at him.
“KKK,” the girl announced.
The girl then tells the two boys to surround him after which one of the boys reached out and hits the Black teenager with the taser. The Black teen tells the other to “chill,” again sounding agitated before walking away as the video ended.
A civil attorney Matthew Manning, who heard about the incident from another client is now representing the Black teen according to Yahoo News. Meanwhile, the principal of the school released a statement
saying the school could not discipline the three students because the incident did not occur on school grounds.Manning and of the Corpus Christi NAACP chapter held a press conference, in November, in which they called the incident a hate crime and Manning added the incident “can’t be seen as kids being kids” and must be seen as a “purposeful crime with the intent to terrorize a Black person.”