A man has been charged with assault and his mother has been fired from her banking job after a video of them racially profiling a black parking permit auditor in the parking garage of a Nashville apartment complex went viral on social media last month.
According to an arrest warrant filed Dec. 2, Edward Brennan took a swing at Johnny Martinez, who was checking cars for parking permits in the parking garage of River House apartments on Nov. 27 a little after 8 p.m.
The alleged assault took place after Brennan and his mother confronted Martinez and called the police on him because he refused to show them identification.
'You Don't Belong Here'
Martinez said he was just doing his job when the mother-son duo approached him and told him "you don't belong here" and asked him "how did you get in here?"
Martinez added that after he told them he was checking the cars for permits, they demanded to see his identification, prompting him to pull out his camera and start recording. He noted that he not only had his ID around his neck, but was also wearing knee pads and a headlamp.
Martinez explained that he worked for a booting company that has hundreds of contracts with properties across Nashville. His job was to make sure that vehicles at those properties had permits to park at those locations.
"If they didn't have a permit, we would immobilize the vehicle. We would put a boot on it," he said.
In the 5-minute long video shared on YouTube and Reddit, Edward and Bitsy repeatedly question Martinez's presence in the parking garage while demanding to see his identification and threatening to call the cops on him.
After Martinez refuses and asks them to mind their own business as he continues to film the pair, the son appears to take a swing at Martinez before a struggle ensues between them off-camera. The mother then dials 911 and reports Martinez, stating that he was refusing to co-operate.
Watch the video below:
Martinez says he waited for the police to show up, but the mother and son who had called them had disappeared by the time they arrived.
Edward Charged with Assault, Bitsy Fired
According to Martinez, when Edward attacked him, he broke off a bottle opener off his keychain and when he went to pick it up, Edward lunged at him again. "When he attacked me, he swung, he almost hit me in the face," Martinez told the Daily Beast. "He broke this bottle opener off of my keys. When I went to go pick it up, he lunged."
"A reasonable person would regard the contact as extremely offensive or provocative," causing Martinez to fear "imminent bodily injury, the arrest warrant states.On Dec. 2, Nashville Metro Police served Edward with the arrest warrant for and he will be booked later this month.
Bitsy, who was working as a wealth management associate at a UBS division, is "no longer employed at the firm," a spokesperson for the Swiss financial services company told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Martinez has set up a GoFundMe page to help him cover legal expenses as he pursues legal action against the Brennans. The page has already amassed over $1,700 in donations.
