A man in Pennsylvania has been caught on camera, yelling racial slurs at a Black truck driver named Ross King Jr. The delivery driver himself recorded the exchange on his phone, and the video went viral on social media. The man faced swift consequences when he was fired from his city job.
The man, who threw derogatory remarks at King, was working as a public works employee for Swissvale, a borough in Western Pennsylvania. At around 5 a.m. on November 5, he was seen approaching the truck driver. He hurled racial slurs and even threatened to start a fight.
The viral clip shows the man throwing the N-word twice at King, who was sitting quietly inside his vehicle. He also accused the Black truck driver of being afraid to get out of his truck and face him directly.
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King responded by calling the man out, saying he clearly had issues. In response, the now former city job worker yells, “I live on a golf course. I don’t live in the hood, brotha.” Before walking away, he kept shouting at King for no reason at all. Speaking with WPXI, the truck driver noted, “He’s making these comments, ‘I live on a golf course, you’re from the hood,’ and I’m just like, dude, you don’t even know who I am.”
He also narrated what exactly happened before the encounter. According to King, he was sitting in his truck early in the morning, waiting for USPS to open. As he waited, the now-former employee approached and told him to move his vehicle.
King revealed that right from the beginning, he sensed something wrong and took out his phone to record the encounter. “There was no reason for me to get out of that truck because, like I said, before I started recording, who knows, he could’ve had a gun, he could’ve had a knife, and it could’ve ended up bad,” he told WPXI.
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He also claimed that the man, during the heated exchange, moved his car and parked it right in front of King’s truck. As the clip went viral on social media, Borough council members began receiving numerous emails, calls, and texts asking them to take swift action against the man.
“We have to show that there’s a no-tolerance policy, that there will be discipline,” said Swissvale Borough Council President Christopher Ansell, who also described the man’s actions as “racist” and “dehumanizing.”
The man, whose identity was not revealed, was fired from his position the very next day. His dismissal was announced through a statement on the borough’s official Facebook page. We love our workforce, but we have an extremely high standard. If you want to come to work in Swissvale, you don’t bring that garbage with you,” added City Councilman Kevin Hanes, condemning the man’s actions.
