An Asian woman named Jessica and her boyfriend were skateboarding in a park in Calgary, Canada on Saturday when a man spit on her. The whole incident was captured in a video that is since being widely circulated on social media.
Jessica's boyfriend was filming her from behind when an African-Canadian man rode past her on his bike and spit on her. He then called her a "f**king ch*nk," a racial slur that people of Asian descent are usually targeted with. It was a completely unprovoked attack. According to the couple, the man did the exact same thing to a Caucasian couple behind them.
"This man spit on my girlfriend @itsjesslau DURING A PANDEMIC and called her a "f**king ch*nk" and sped off on his bicycle," he captioned the video shared on Instagram. "We are outraged. He also did this to another couple behind us who were Caucasian."
He also urged people with any information about the man's identity to pass it on to the authorities, possibly even share it with the Calgary police.
Watch the video below:
Social Media Tracks Him Down
The video instantly went viral on social media with some users calling out the man over his racist and hateful behaviour. Others didn't waste any time in doing some digging of information and identified the person as Justin Williams, the manager of the University of Calgary's basketball team.
Some users even shared screenshots of some of Williams' racist comments that he had made in the past. Assuming he still works there, netizens also drew the University of Calgary's attention to the incident and called for his firing.
The university later issued a statement strongly condemning Williams' behaviour and confirmed that he has not been working with them since February this year.
"We strongly condemn the actions in this video and join the community in extending our support to victims Jessica and her boyfriend," the University of Canada said in a statement on Twitter. "Justin Williams has not been an employee of UCalgary since February and his past social media comments were reported to CPS by our staff."
Williams has since been reported to the Calgary Police Service. Spitting on someone is illegal and considered as physical assault and is likely to be taken very seriously given the current situation regarding coronavirus.
