Ohio mom bombarded with death threats after black neighbor’s video goes viral: ‘Huge misunderstanding’

An Ohio mother of the two is speaking out after receiving fierce death threats, both directly and on social media, over a viral video that saw some vilify her as a “racist,” which she says is completely false and the result of a “massive misunderstanding.”

Michelle Bishop spoke to Fox News Digital about the situation involving her neighbor, DaMichael Jenkins, who released Ring camera footage of her panicking on her doorstep, believing Jenkins was inappropriately following her and not believing his claim to be alive in the house where he crawled.

The exchange went viral on social media, along with newspaper reports labeling her as “Karen” who assumed that Jenkins was a threat only because of her race, which Bishop vehemently disputes.

Bishop told Fox News Digital that the incident in question began on a cold November night in Delaware County, Ohio, when she took her young daughter and son with her for a run to look at Christmas lights, and a car with its lights on slowly sped by. driving behind them as they walked in the dark down a dimly lit street.

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Bishop then explained that she moved her children to the sidewalk, but that the car did not pass her “in time” and the driver began questioning her.

“I didn’t answer, I pulled into the — I told my daughter, ‘come down this driveway, turn here, don’t look back at the truck,’ and so we pulled into the driveway, ended up on the porch, ringing the doorbell,” Bishop said.

“No one answered at that point. The truck was backing into the driveway. He stayed in his truck. I couldn’t see him and I looked in the driveway at that point and I said, ‘Is this your home?’ And he said, ‘I don’t believe that,’ and at that point I was on the defensive. There was no way I was going to change my mind. I was just trying to protect my kids.”

Bishop actually tried to seek shelter in a house that belonged to Jenkins, and Ringo’s doorbell video captured her telling Jenkins she didn’t believe he lived there before running to another nearby house and yelling for help.

Later footage shows Bishop telling Jenkins that he “scared her to death” and that she was “caught off guard”. Jenkins told Bishop not to follow her and that he was just admiring the Christmas lights.

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Bishop told Fox News Digital that she apologized numerous times, which the Jenkins family did not accept, and thought the matter was resolved until the video was posted on a local neighborhood Facebook group and eventually picked up by the media, sparking a firestorm of messages. full of hate to get to her attacking her as a racist.

“It’s causing tremendous devastation to our family in every way you can think of,” she said. “Our family, our businesses. Right now we are receiving hundreds if not thousands of threats in our direct messages, on our phones, voicemails calling stores. But some of the threats we received became death threats.”

“You and your children deserve a slow death and you should kill yourselves or it will be done for you,” Bishop was told in one message.

“We know who you are and where you live. Your husband is going to come home and become a single father. You should be publicly hanged,” another message read.

“There are more who are very explicit and violent towards our children and I don’t want to share them here,” she added. “Our businesses have experienced massive devastation, one of them had to temporarily close due to death threats, they called our store and said they were going to kill every last employee. So it’s affecting us in huge ways.”

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Social media has been abuzz with posts calling Bishop a “racist,” including one post that said: “Michelle Bishop… is counting her fucking days.”

Jenkins, a real estate developer, went on the “Nightcap” podcast with former NFL stars Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson earlier this week, a show with over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube, and accused Bishop of racial profiling despite her claims that she had not knew Jenkins’ race during the interaction.

Bishop told Fox News Digital that she had “absolutely” no idea that Jenkins was black, and even told a neighbor in the house she ran to when she panicked that the person might be white.

“The headlights were behind me and the first time I looked into the driveway of his truck, the headlights were there and I wasn’t specifically trying to look at him,” Bishop said. “I was thinking about the situation. I had absolutely no idea what he looked like. Like I said, I thought the young man was white. It was all a big misunderstanding. That’s all it was.”

Bishop has received some support on social media from prominent conservative figures, including commentator and author Matt Walsh.

“I’m late to this, but of course the internet mob has got this situation completely wrong,” Walsh published on X. “The woman saw a truck slowly following behind her. She panicked about the truck before she even saw who was in it. She came back later that night and apologized for the mistake.”

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Walsh continued: “That should have been the end of it. No harm, no foul, no one hurt. Innocent mistake. Instead this guy decides to put the footage online and embarrass it in front of the world. And unsurprisingly a bunch of drooling idiots on social media are uncritical ran with it and continued to destroy this woman’s life.

Bishop told Fox News Digital that she hopes for a reconciliation with the Jenkins family.

“I believe that love can cover a lot of things and what happened that night was a big misunderstanding,” she said. “We are lovers of all people, and if given the chance, like I said, I believe that you should forgive everyone, and loved I would like to sit down with them.”

“I think what happened that night was a huge misunderstanding,” Bishop continued. “I hold their heart, I hear their perspective on things. I’ve never been in their shoes. I don’t know what they’re up against. I can’t talk about it. So to hear their point of view and how He took it. But I really hope and want them they realize that I was a mama bear trying to protect my kids is a massive misunderstanding and if given the chance, like I said, I’d like to reconcile that relationship.”

Jenkins did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.