A police officer is facing felony charges after pointing a rifle at an Oklahoma hardware store employee and saying the N-word.
Jerry “Neal” Pollard, the allegedly racist officer who said the N-word, drove his truck toward a Black employee at Alford Metals, a small-town metal-oriented hardware store and manufacturer in Idabel, Okla.
An off-duty Neal was angry that, for whatever reason, the Black employee worked there. The affidavit filed in McCurtain County District Court, near the town of Haworth where the officer is stationed, does not mention what led to the incident or what prompted Neal to point his gun, but on April 24, the Black employee, Bobby Young, was threatened with a rifle pointed at him when Neal arrived.
“You got a case now,” Neal reportedly told Young as he stormed out of his truck armed. “Run, (N-word) run. You better run, boy,” according to the affidavit.
Young stood his ground and told Neal that the metal supplies he had purchased would be delivered as soon as he left. Neal complied with the Black employee’s instructions, according to the affidavit.
Tensions also flared when Young told Neal that he was ready to call the police, and Neal informed him that “they’re already here.”
In response to the affidavit, the Haworth Police Department, where Neal is an officer, has suspended the officer as he faces a felony charge; he was charged with feloniously pointing a firearm which carries 10 years in prison if found guilty.
On May 18, Neal bonded out of jail.
The assault comes less than two weeks after four McCurtain County officials got exposed in a secretly recorded conversation for talking about lynching Black people and threatening to kill two Black reporters. It was one of those journalists who exposed those individuals, and it led Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) to request the group to step down.
