BY: Denver Sean
Published 6 years ago
D’Arreion Toles was headed home from work a white woman and her dog were exiting the St. Louis loft building in which he lives.
She proceeded to block D’Arreion and question him about his residence, his unit number, his key fob, and who he was visiting.
via SM:
Toles’ cellphone video of the incident shows the woman standing directly in front of the door, blocking him from stepping inside. “Please move, m’am,” Toles said. She responded: “I can…do you live here?” The two went back and forth, with the woman telling Toles that she needed to know what unit he lived in and Toles responding (very rightly) that he didn’t need to give her that information.
The interaction goes on for three minutes in the video. Toles continues to ask the woman to move but she won’t budge. “You are blocking me into my building,” he said. “This is my building as well. So, I need you to get out of my way.”
The woman then proceeded to follow Toles to his apartment door. She decided to switch tactics at that point and said she just wanted to say hello and ask him his name (yup, I’m shaking my head too). Toles wrote in a Facebook post that the woman then called the police AFTER HE HAD ALREADY LET HIMSELF IN WITH HIS KEY. The police showed up to his apartment but left shortly after without issuing any citations.
The videos have since been viewed more than 1 million times and hundreds of outraged comments have poured in. Toles told KMOV4 that he appreciates all of “love and support” but hopes that the public doesn’t harass the tenant who harassed him.
“Don’t respond negatively. Don’t go after the lady. Let her be at peace. Let her live her life,” he said. “…I am not mad at her. I am not upset with her. I am not going to go after her legally or anything like that. I wish her the best. I would still have a conversation with her.” The news station reportedly reached out to the woman to comment, but she didn’t respond.
Toles added that he was “blown away” that the tenant acted the way she did. “I am just glad I had my camera out,” he said. “If I did not have my camera out, I feel it could have gone a totally different way.”
We commend D’Arreion for staying calm in this situation, because we’re not sure we would’ve let this woman play with our time for so long. Watch his videos of the encounter below.