WARNING: The video above contains racial slurs and graphic language. Viewer discretion is advised.
A Minnesota woman is facing charges after she was caught on camera hurling racial slurs at a Black Uber driver and trying to get him arrested by police, per KARE 11. According to a criminal complaint, this incident happened on April 1, 2022, in the 2300 block of Hennepin Avenue South in Minneapolis.
The footage, which was posted to YouTube on April 4, 2022, shows 38-year-old Jill Berquist yelling racist insults at 47-year-old Wesley Gakuo and even kicking his car.
The video begins with her talking on the phone with someone before getting upset at the driver, calling him a "motherf**ker" and then saying, "You’re making me uncomfortable. I’ll call the cops."
After Gakuo pulls over and gets out of the vehicle, Berquist soon screams, "F**k you, b***h," rips something off the back of the passenger’s seat, and throws it out the window. She then thrashes around in the car before getting out, where she's recorded on the driver's cellphone repeatedly calling him the N-word.
“The cops will f**king string your sh*t up, you f**king n*****,” the white woman yells before telling 911 dispatchers Gakuo punched her. She kept calling him the N-word while speaking with dispatchers, who told her to "stop using racial slurs," the complaint alleges.
Later on in the footage, an unknown man approaches Berquist to "get out" of the neighborhood over her racial tirade. That later leads to the 38-year-old saying, "I'm white, I live here. Black people don't live here."
When Minneapolis police responded to the scene, Berquist kept yelling racist language at the driver, according to the complaint. The woman reportedly told officers Gakuo hit her on the left side of the face, but cops said they didn't observe any injuries.
Berquist said she wanted the driver charged with "everything" and later sent videos and images to officers that didn't support her claims, the complaint reads. She also changed her story, claiming Gakuo held her down and punched her in the right side of her face, Star Tribune reports. Police did say the evidence shows her kicking the Black driver's car and threatening violence, leading to charges.
Berquist has been charged with one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. She was also facing a charge of falsely reporting a crime, but prosecutors dropped the charge Tuesday (July 13).
Julie Berquist, the woman's mother, claims her daughter did "nothing wrong" and that she was merely drunk that night.
"She has Black friends. She is not a racist person," the parent told Star Tribune.
As for Gakuo, he said he hopes Berquist "will figure a way for her life."
The 38-year-old is due back in court on September 20.
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