Oregon woman, Amber Rocco arrested after launching into racist vitriol at black couple and their family over parking lot space.
A knife-wielding white woman in McMinnville, Oregon has been arrested after being filmed launching racist vitriol towards a young black couple following a dispute over a parking lot space on Christmas Eve.
Taken into custody Friday night was Amber Rocco, 39 of Willamina.
Fox 12 News reported Rocco facing two counts of intimidation in the first degree, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of menacing and two counts of harassment in connection with the dispute, which took place on Sunday.
Emora Roberson, 20, her boyfriend, was out with her boyfriend Keysuan Goodyear, her aunt, and her 15-month-old daughter at a strip mall parking lot on Christmas Eve for last-minute gift shopping when the family were subjected to hostilities reported the Oregonian.
The family’s vehicle had pulled up next to a pickup truck, which was parked in a handicapped spot although it lacked the requisite sticker.
Having pulled up next to the pickup truck- Rocco began hurling racist slurs at the family.
Roberson told the Oregonian it was all because her aunt had ‘parked crooked.’
‘My daughter was fast asleep, and this woman was basically trying to get into our car,’ Roberson told the media outlet.
Adding, ‘Her truck didn’t have a handicapped sticker’.
Amber Rocco: ‘I’m not trying to stab no one, it’s called self-defense’.
According to Roberson, the enraged woman slapped and spit on her boyfriend, who in turn grew angry and warned the woman about her behavior and language.
Rocco responded by taking out a knife.
That’s when Roberson said she began filming the incident on her phone.
The video shows the woman with the drawn blade in her hand. Roberson can be heard saying that it appears the woman is going to try and stab her boyfriend.
‘“I’m not trying to stab no one, it’s called self-defense,’ the woman yells at Roberson before dropping another racial slur.
The women then slams an open car door on Roberson, hops back into her pickup and begins using her cell phone. The woman later screams another threat at the family before the video ends.
‘We eventually drove off. We still had Christmas shopping to do,’ Roberson said. ‘My daughter woke up and was crying her head off.’
Posted Roberson on her Facebook page: ‘Racism is alive and here right where we live. This woman got mad cuz we ‘parked crooked’ and starting callin us n******s, spit on my boyfriend, and slapped him in the face. This racist shit gotta go.’
Roberson later contacted the McMinnville police following the incident.
The young mother said the racial slurs and threats of violence didn’t bother her as much as the fact the woman acted that way in front of her daughter.
‘I don’t know who made her so mad that day,’ she said. ‘That wasn’t any way to talk to me or talk to someone in front of a child.’
Rocco is being held at the Yamhill County Jail and her bail is set at $55,000. Of note- the charge of intimidation is considered a hate crime in Oregon.
