Video of a man going on a racist tirade while circling a group of people relaxing in Virginia has gone viral.
The group was in the Mosaic District in Fairfax County when the man started shouting at them.
Tara Bokum said he approached her group and asked her friends to tell him their ethnicity.
Bokum started recording him.
"Bye!” he yelled. “Go to your own (expletive) country!"
Then he approached Bokum and addressed her.
"Go to your own country,” he said. “Go to your own country, dreamer."
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"I was really just shocked in the moment, like, what is happening?” Bokum said. “I couldn't believe it was happening, really."
When they asked him to leave, he got aggressive, Bokum said.
“And I was terrified because the fact that he felt like he could get so close to me to begin with and was being so aggressive,” she said. “And when you don't know someone, you don't know what they're going to do, what they're capable of doing."
She and her friends Walked away and filed a police report.
Police say that was the right thing to do. Anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation should back away and call police.
News4 isn't identifying the man because Fairfax County police said he was not charged with a crime for the incident.
However, he was arrested a couple of hours later and charged with disorderly conduct and assault, police said.
News4 spoke the man, who said he will make a statement after he hires an attorney.
Bokum said she shared the video so people can see the reality of racism.
"I had someone say, 'Oh, I can't believe it happened here. Not here,'” she said. “And I was just like, what do you mean? Racism is everywhere."
