Police investigating video of Bethesda confrontation as hate or bias incident

Man calls woman ethnic slur, threatens ‘annihilation’

May 29, 2020 9:27 p.m.

Montgomery County police say that they are investigating a video that shows a man shouting an ethnic slur at a woman in downtown Bethesda as a hate or bias incident.

This week, multiple video clips surfaced on social media that show a man yelling at a woman while standing near his car. The location appears to be the intersection of Woodmont and Bethesda avenues.

In a 58-second version of the video that was posted to Twitter on Wednesday, the man shouts a derogatory slur at the woman on the assumption that she is Japanese and threatens a bombing.

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The clip starts with the woman walking toward the man, who is yelling at her, “Keep your distance.”

“What did you call him?” the woman asks. The man then uses a slur for Japanese people and says it is aimed at her.

The woman continues, asking, “Did you use the N word to my son?”

As the confrontation continues, the man screams at her, “You’re not my mother. Get outta here.”

The woman says “Shame you” and turns to walk away. The man responds, “Get outta here. We’re gonna drop the bomb on Hiroshima. We’re gonna annihilate Japan and you, too.”

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“I’m not even Japanese, you idiot. Racist,” the woman calls back as the man gets into his car.

As she walks away, the man gets back out of his car and says, “You wanna fight? Let’s go.” The woman says “OK, go ahead” and walks back toward him.

Another man wearing a blue jacket crosses the street to intervenes and tells the man to stop.

“Don’t talk like that. Stop. You’re disgusting. Just go,” he tells the man.

The second apologizes to the woman, saying, “I’m so sorry. That’s awful.”

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The first man can be heard, inside his car, saying “My name is Michael,” shortly before starting his car.

Police wrote on Twitter Thursday that they were investigating video of a “road rage” incident in Bethesda where “disturbing statements of a racial nature are made by an individual against an Asian woman.”

Capt. Tom Jordan, a police spokesman, wrote in an email to Bethesda Beat on Thursday that police are “investigating the incident in its totality” and it is being treated as a hate or bias incident.

Jordan said he didn’t know what day the confrontation happened or what led up to it. A police report was never filed, he said.

A representative at the restaurant Tandoori Nights, which is nearby, said he wasn’t aware of the incident.

Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media

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