A white woman involved in a melee at a community swimming pool in McKinney, Texas, denied using racial slurs against black teens.
Tracey Carver denied claims made by 19-year-old Tatyana Rhodes, who hosted a party with her brother at a community pool in the Craig Ranch neighborhood, reported the Dallas Morning News.
The woman, who has been suspended from her job at Bank of America and has relocated to California over alleged threats, said the teens had set up a barbecue event June 5 with a DJ outside the pool gates.
But guests from outside the neighborhood began arriving about 5 p.m. and entered the pool “by the dozens,” Carver said.
She said the teens became angry when security guards asked to see key cards that gave them access to the neighborhood pool, and Carver said she decided to leave with her children, a grandchild, and a friend.
Carver said some of the teens told them to leave and called them “black haters,” and she said they blocked their exit.
“It was nearly impossible to exit the gate because it was lined three rows deep with dozens of what appeared to be disrespectful, unruly and violent teens and young adults,” Carver said.
She said one of the teens began hurling unspecified racial slurs at her friend and argued that the pool was public, and she said her friend tried to explain that residents pay dues to use the pool.
Carver said a young woman then attacked her friend and grabbed her hair.
That’s apparently the point in a video recorded by a bystander that shows Carver and another white woman struggling with a younger black woman.
“My kids were screaming and traumatized,” Carver said. “I walked out to defuse the fight and did just that. I didn’t beat anyone nor use racial slurs of any kind.”
She said someone then threw a frozen drink at her, splattering her and her 11-year-old child with red liquid.
Rhodes, the party host and a Craig Ranch resident, said the two women called her friends “black f*ckers” and told them to go back to their Section 8 housing, and she said one of the women attacked a white 14-year-old friend who objected to the slurs.
Eric Casebolt, a police officer who responded to the incident, resigned after video showed him throw a black girl in a bikini to the ground and chase some boys at gunpoint.
Carver has hired high-profile attorney Gloria Allred to represent her in connection with the incident.
“I am very concerned that the movement for racial equality suffers a serious setback when innocent individuals are wrongly accused of making racist statements based on false rumors and find themselves and their children being threatened that they will be raped and murdered,” Allred said.
The attorney said Carver is owed an apology by her accusers.
A black friend of Carver’s also spoke up in her defense at a news conference organized by Allred.
“While I was not at the incident that took place, I heard the story from Tracey and because I know the type of character she has, I am positive that she didn’t make any racist comments or start an altercation,” said friend Aaron C. Clark, who has known Carver’s husband for 27 years.
Watch video of the news conference posted online by KTVT-TV:
