A Black woman who was attacked by a white man over a gas pump said he “had hate in his eyes” while he pointed a gun to her head, IndyStar reports.
A video of the incident circulated on social media showed Tashauna Gooch scared for her life as Mark Douglas White pointed a gun to her head at an Indianapolis gas station on Jan. 21. Gooch told police the ordeal started when she pulled up to a disabled gas pump. White pulled in behind her with a 2015 Ram pickup with a flatbed trailer attached, honking at her several times. After she moved her car, the 21-year-old said she got out, and the two started arguing. “I was sitting at the pump that wasn’t even working and he pulled up telling me to move all aggressive,” Gooch said.
“I asked him what his problem was, and he started calling me all types of n-words and threatening me … Basically, I was at the pump too long for him.”
Three men, including a man who captured the incident on camera, are heard yelling at the man to put the gun down and leave her alone. Gooch can be heard telling them to “call the cops.”
White, who lives in North Carolina according to court records, was arrested and charged with intimidation with a deadly weapon, battery with a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness, strangulation, and battery. When Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers arrived, he told them that Gooch pulled a gun on him first, but she denies those allegations and alleges witnesses can back her story up. “I have too much to live for, and I’m not going to shoot somebody for calling me the n-word. I had witnesses, and I wanted the police to come….” she said. Gooch did have a holstered firearm in her car.
“I (could) hear the hate in his voice.”
While the motivation behind the incident has not been identified — Gooch alleges she “was at the pump too long for him” — Josh Riddick of the Indiana Black Church Coalition believes there was racial discrimination ideology behind it and blames the new Trump-Vance administration. He pointed out the coincidence that something like this happened just days after Elon Musk’s controversial salute, being likened to that of Adolf Hitler. “There’s a deep history of racism in Indiana with housing the KKK, and that history isn’t that distant,” Riddick said, according to Yahoo.
“Those people are still here, and when you have legislators and leaders both national and local using some of the language that they do, it influences people willing to cause everyday physical harm to minority groups.”
Gooch was struck several times, resulting in marks on her neck and a scratch on the back of her head. Officers claim they were likely caused by the Smith and Wesson in White’s hand. “I felt like if he wanted to shoot me, he would have just shot me,” the victim said.
“I’m just happy we’re both still here.”
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