Woman accused of 'racial profiling' because of misunderstanding

An Ohio mother was publicly accused and shamed for a "racial profiling" incident, even though the woman says it was a terrible misunderstanding. She says she has received death threats.

Apparently that's the state of society today, where there are many people so angry at the phenomena of "racial profiling" that some of them will resort to sending death threats against the individuals accused, whether or not they truly have all the facts.

It was just before 6:00. It gets dark early in winter in Ohio. Michelle Bishop says she was out in the neighborhood jogging with her young daughter and son, looking at the Christmas lights. Her son had his music playing. They went through a part of the neighborhood that was under construction and poorly lit. They were walking in the street and she noticed a vehicle's headlights coming up from behind her. She started to get her children to move towards the sidewalk, to get out of the street, walking through some grass to get to the sidewalk. The car did not seem to be passing them in a timely manner. As soon as she got on the sidewalk, a man's voice came from the car asking her questions. The woman did not feel safe and told her daughter to turn and not to look back at the truck. They walked up the driveway and arrived at the porch of a house, and the woman rung the doorbell. No one was answering. The truck began backing into the driveway. The man stayed in his truck. The woman could not see him.

She looked out at the driveway at that point, and said to the man "Is this your home?"
He said "yes".
She said "I don't believe that".
At that point she was concerned for her and her children's safety and was in defense mode. She panicked and ran.

When Michelle Bishop later went back with her husband to get the stroller she left behind, she talked to the woman who lived in the house that they had earlier run walked up to.
It turned out it was a black family who lived there, and that woman's husband was the same man who had pulled his truck into the driveway.
Michelle Bishop repeatedly said she was sorry.

The black couple did not accept her apology, and things were not over.
A couple months later, someone informed Michelle Bishop that there was a letter going around the neighborhood that said there had been a "racial profiling" attempt.
The media soon picked up the story as well.

Michelle Bishop and her husband, through mutual friends, tried to set up a meeting with the black family to resolve the situation, but the black family did not want to talk to them. The black family revealed security camera footage of the incident and a neighborhood Facebook page.

Michelle Bishop says that she did not see the man driving the truck that night and did not know what he looked like. She could not see the driver of the truck because of the headlights.

Michelle Bishop says she has received hundreds of threats. They have poured in through direct messages, phones, voicemail calling into the stores run by their family business. Some of the threats have been death threats, such as "You and your children deserve to die slow", "You should kill yourself, or it will be done for you. We know who you are and where you live", "Your husband is going to come home to being a single dad", "You should be hung in public".
She says there are multiple additional messages that were very violent and graphic in regards to her children.

One of their stores had to temporarily close due to death threats. One message called into the store said they were going to kill every last one of the employees.
Michelle Bishop is almost breaking down into tears talking about what is happening.

Ohio mother accused of racial profiling in viral video speaks out: 'Massive misunderstanding', Fox News, January 24, 2025


What's also notable (or ironic) about this story is that the "black man" in question, from the picture, appears to maybe only be around a quarter black. He has dreadlocks, but his skin doesn't appear to be extremely dark at all. Viewed from a distance, could maybe almost pass as white Hispanic or Middle Eastern if he didn't have those big dreadlocks.