A black delivery driver’s truck was blocked by white residents, members of the Oklahoma City community, demanding to know what the man was doing there.
Travis Miller, the delivery driver, believes the men who held him against his will did it not because they were concerned about his work in the neighborhood, but because of the color of his skin.
While the men were approaching him, Miller decided to record the encounter. He live-streamed the video on his Facebook account, as Mail Online reports.
What the driver was actually doing was finishing making a delivery to a customer who lives in the swanky Ashford Hills area of Edmond, northeast of Oklahoma City. Apparently, his presence disturbed the neighbors at the gated community, as some of them cut his way off.
The unpleasant incident happened on Monday, May 11. In the video, as he points the camera to show the back of his truck being obstructed by a white sedan, Miller says:
“I’m trying to leave and I got ‘super neighbor’ over here blocking me in.”
After that, the driver turns the camera to show the man who was blocking his way, saying: “This is who I’m dealing with.”
Further in the encounter, the man wearing a brownish-red sweater and white baseball cap identifies himself as David Stewart. But when he tells the driver his name, Miller just replies he doesn’t care, and all he wants is for Stewart to ‘get out the way’.
David Stewart told the delivery man he was a homeowners association(HOA) president. These organizations include people who own residential properties in a specific area. Moreover, they have specific rules and regulations inside the closed community.
The HOA president was specifically interested in the way the driver managed to get into the gated community.
When he tried to ask Miller, the driver responded it was none of his business.
Nor long after, another association member joined Stewart. The other homeowner said:
“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.”
In an interview with KFOR-TV, Miller said he refused to tell Stewart how he got inside the neighborhood, as he wanted to protect his customer’s personal information.
Not wanting to make a bad situation worse, Miller decided to call the police. He made the men who were blocking his way aware of his decision. And an hour later, even though the police did not arrive, Stewart finally moved his car.
In the live-stream, as Miller was calling the police, he can be seen in tears.
He admitted this incident left him deeply emotional, as at the time was in mourning over the passing of two relatives. The delivery driver shared:
“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. I just did the best I could to not make a bad situation worse.”
According to the driver, the men contacted his customer, as they later approached Stewart, and as Miller says, ‘he moved out the way’.
