An Oklahoma man is accused of driving his car at a black girl and her siblings after his daughter accused the teen of bullying.
A witness said he was waiting in his own vehicle to pick up his children from the school bus stop in Meridian when the suspect pulled up and parked behind him, reported KFOR-TV.
The 14-year-old girl and her two siblings got off the bus and started loading into their own car when the suspect, later identified by police as Dale Trent Jr., drove his pickup truck straight at them.
"He was parked at an angle behind mine and when he came, his angle shot him straight towards them," said witness Michael Jackson.
Jackson said the siblings scattered, and Trent missed the black girl by less than 10 feet.
Witnesses told police Trent shouted racial slurs at the siblings and threatened to kill them, and Jackson said the other man's actions were reckless -- if not intended to harm the children.
"He was deliberately trying to scare her," Jackson said. "Was he going to hit them? I don't think so, but when you're spinning on gravel like that, you don't have that much control."
Trent told KFOR that he was picking up a friend's children when his own daughter pointed out a girl she'd complained about as a bully.
"When she got off the school bus here, she was crying," Trent said. "I said, 'What`s wrong, baby?' and she tells me that this girl keeps picking on her."
He denied using racial slurs or making threats, but he admits to confronting the girl over his daughter's claims.
"My child goes, 'There she is, daddy,' and I asked her, 'Why do you keep picking on my child?'" Trent said. "She wouldn't answer me. I said, 'You need to keep your hands off my child.'"
Trent was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
It's not clear whether Trent or his daughter reported the alleged bullying to school officials before the incident at the bus stop.
