PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — A FedEx driver is speaking out after he says he was the victim of a random attack while delivering packages over the weekend.
Driver Tirrell Lipsey shared dashcam video of the attack with News 8. The 23-year-old said the attack happened Saturday afternoon on Bruning Street between Prosperity Drive and Shumway Avenue. The video shows a man attempt to strike Lipsey in the face while repeatedly calling him the N-word.
“That day I was just going about my day, a usual Saturday just making deliveries and this guy just walks up to the truck and he walked up to me and he was like, ‘Forgive your father’ on the driver’s side of my door and then he tried to strike me in the face,” said Lipsey. “I was shocked, confused, really irritated at the time. He ended up stepping into my truck and I said, ‘No you have to get down. You can’t be up here.'”
Lipsey said he started driving for FedEx two years ago. The Marine Corps reservist said Bruning Street is a part of his normal route and he has never had an encounter like this.
“I ended up calling the police. He started throwing stuff at me from my truck. He was pulling fuses out of the little thing up there,” Lipsey said as he motioned to overhead controls in his truck.
He said the attack didn’t stop there. Lipsey said the man then began following him to homes and stealing packages. One of the thefts was caught on a Ring doorbell camera — neighbor Andrew Moore, who captured the footage, said there were medical supplies inside for his sister.
“Soon as I seen him swing, I couldn’t even finish the video and I called (Tirrell). So by now, I’m livid,” said Lipsey’s mother Cathy Phason. “To still feel like we have to deal with this, deal with the racial slurs and I’m not sure what it was if it’s mental or whatever, but to me it’s very upsetting.”
Watch the dashcam and Ring camera footage provided to News 8 in the video below.
Lipsey says the interaction went on for almost 10 minutes. The incident is now sparking concern for other delivery carriers. Phason and Lipsey say they fear it could have ended differently.
“This was hate all the way and if he’s that angered he could have easily took this young man’s life. His mother could have been at the medical examiner’s office trying to identify her son,” said Andrew Holmes, a community activist out of Chicago who the family reached out to following the incident.
In a statement to News 8, FedEx said it was ‘outraged’ by the incident.
“We are both saddened and outraged by the behavior exhibited in this video, and our first concern is for the driver involved. We are staying connected with him and offering our support. We also have verified that a police report was filed and an investigation is underway to further address this incident.”
FedEx spokesperson
“It’s just crazy to me that somebody could just randomly kind of do something like that,” said Lipsey.
Lipsey said he is now working with the Portage Department of Public Safety to press charges on the attacker.
On Thursday, Portage police said an arrest has been in the case. PDPS told News 8 that the suspect may face the following charges: illegal entry, malicious destruction of property, larceny, assault and battery, and ethnic intimidation.
The suspect’s name has not been released.
