WATCH: Florida man arrested for threatening innocent Black family at gunpoint -- just because of their race
A Florida man is facing hate crime charges after he allegedly threatened a Black family at gunpoint, in a racially motivated incident in Volusia County.
Nicholas J. Gordon, 21, pulled up alongside the victims at a DeLand-area intersection on Sunday afternoon, before pointing a handgun at them and stating, "I will kill you n*****," according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. The victims were a mother, a father and two children under 12.
After the victims drove away, Gordon and three passengers chased them in his yellow Chevrolet Spark, police said. When they caught up to the family at the next intersection, Gordon exited the vehicle and yelled more obscenities before driving off in the other direction. Gordon later told sheriff's deputies he pulled a gun on the Black family because "he knew (the victims) were African American and he knew from past experiences African Americans can be violent."
When "asked what the people did, other than being black, that would make him feel threatened enough to have a gun," Gordan said "nothing," the sheriff's office said.
After being tracked down by deputies on Monday evening, Gordon initially denied any involvement, but when presented with surveillance video from the incident, he claimed the victims had backed into his car before fleeing, and he was merely chasing them to exchange information. However, there was no evidence of damage to his vehicle.
The victims said the incident was unprovoked, and detectives agreed.
"At the conclusion of the investigation all evidence indicated this incident was clearly just a violent hate crime where the suspect pointed a firearm directly at the victims, a family in their car with children, who were solely targeted for being African American," the detectives wrote in their report.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood added: "This type of behavior will not be tolerated in Volusia County. I want everyone to know this Sheriff's Office will do everything possible to track down and arrest anyone who commits such an abhorrent act of hate in this community."
Gordon was being held without bond Tuesday on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, child abuse, and carrying a concealed firearm. The charges are enhanced because the case has been classified as a hate crime.
Watch video from Gordon's arrest below.
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