“We need to get the facts.”
That’s the first step that Spotsylvania NAACP President Mozette Petway said the group needs to take in addressing the recent alleged racially-motivated attack that targeted two African American women, leaving one of them hospitalized.
The Spotsylvania NAACP held a meeting at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Saturday morning, hosting their fellow branches from Fredericksburg and Stafford as well as other concerned members of the community. That discussion centered around not just that July 20th incident, but what some referred to as “patterns of behavior” in Partlow as well as other areas in the county.
Petway told the group he’s spoken with the Richmond couple involved in the incident on Partlow Road, who were visiting family in the area when they experienced car trouble.
On a recent GoFundMe campaign, Amylah Majors describes how she and her wife Jamaria Gaskins were “chased, threatened with firearms, and called racial slurs” after experiencing car trouble on Partlow Road on the afternoon of July 20th. According to Majors, two men and one women, all white, physically assaulted them while brandishing a firearm and yelling threats and racial epithets.
“They called us “n*ggers,” told us we didn’t belong there, and one of them even exposed himself while screaming hate and slurs at us,” Majors wrote.
Upon attempting to leave, the couple was pursued by the suspects.
“One of them rode up beside us on a 4-wheeler and aimed a gun directly at my head through the driver’s window,” recounts Majors.
“In that moment, we truly believed we weren’t going to make it out alive.”
Majors says this pursuit ended with a crash, ejecting her from the vehicle and resulting in injuries that include “a fractured spine, broken clavicle, broken rib, severe concussion, and multiple head injuries” that required staples. The couple is raising money for “overwhelming” medical bills, therapy, legal assistance and lost income the couple has faced following the alleged attack. That campaign has raised just over $14,000 as of August 9th.
That GoFundMe also includes photos of the alleged aggressors, one of whom is depicted holding a pistol and the other shown exposing himself.
Two of those suspects are now facing charges. Elizabeth Wolfrey, 32, of Spotsylvania faces a single charge of brandishing a firearm and Mark Goodman, 59, of Spotsylvania faces one charge of indecent exposure. Both charges of misdemeanors and were filed two days after the incident.
A third individual involved in the alleged Partlow Road attack has not been charged at this time. The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation remains ongoing.
A pair of misdemeanor charges isn’t enough, according to Petway.
“No ambiguity, no confusion…we are saying, ‘You must conduct a hate crime investigation.'”
The group plans to deliver a letter to Spotsylvania Commonwealth Attorney Ryan Mehaffey on Monday morning. It’s also invited its members and those in neighboring counties to attend Spotsylvania’s Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday evening.
The Partlow Road attack isn’t an isolated incident, according to feedback from a number of individuals at Saturday’s meeting. Discussion at Saturday’s meeting soon turned to a number of other racially-motivated confrontations that the community has had to endure in recent years, including a pair of driveway incidents. One of those instances resulted in a resident firing shots into the vehicle of three teenagers who were attempting to turn around.
Another highly-shared social media post of a recent racially-charged encounter on Plank Road was also discussed. Screenshots from that incident, which resulted in charges of reckless driving and abusive language, were distributed at Saturday’s event.
“Is this the entire county, or just Partlow?” one audience member asked.
“It’s not the entire county, but not just Partlow, either,” was one reply.
Petway invited both the Stafford and Fredericksburg NAACP, who both had leadership in attendance on Saturday, to show up and lend their support at next Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor meeting. He also says the group plans on reconnecting with Gaskins and Majors to support them through their journey to justice.
“This sends a message that the citizens aren’t afraid to report,” commented one audience member.
“This is old stuff and skeletons that are resurrecting. It’s a cemetery of racism.”
Gaskins and Majors’ GoFundMe can be found at bit.ly/46QgyUe.
Correction: The article originally mistated that the Plank Road incident resulted in no charges. It has since been corrected.
You are dealing with 2 imbeciles. Definitely not the views of the majority of local white people. The NAACP should devote more resources on black on black crime taking young lives on a daily bases!
We all know about black or black crime if you wanna say black on black crime, but crime is crime no matter whether the person is black or white.
And to address that issue, you must get rid of drugs, and make changes to a legal system, or example, the jails is supposed to rehabilitate people, so that when they are released into society, they won’t continue to commit crimes, our system does not support rehabilitation,