A white mother-of-two became terrified when she thought a black man was following her while jogging in her affluent neighborhood in Ohio – only to later learn he was simply pulling into his home.
Michelle Bishop was jogging with her two young kids in their neighborhood in Ohio when she became convinced that the man was following her in his car.
She bounded up to a home where she thought she’d find refuge, ringing the doorbell and complaining to the woman who answered that she was being followed.
Unbeknownst to her, the house belonged to -DaMichael Jenkins, the very man she was accusing.
His wife, Brittany, answered.
‘He’s pulling in because he lives here. That’s my husband,’ she explained.
Bishop refused to believe them.
‘I don’t believe that,’ she said, before she running away with her son in her arms and her daughter following close behind – leaving the stroller to fall off the Jenkins’ porch.
She could then be seen running around the neighborhood, screaming ‘help’ at the top of her lungs in other security footage.
Bishop even called the local police department, Jenkins said in an episode of the Nightcap podcast with Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco.
It turned out he was just on his way home the night of the incident, November 19, and was driving slowly through the neighborhood to admire his Christmas lights.
Surveillance footage shows Michelle Bishop and her children on the porch of DaMichael Jenkins’ home after running away from him as he pulled into his driveway
Even though Jenkins told Bishop he lives at the home, she says she does not believe him, and takes off screaming for help
Bishop has since issued a groveling defense, insisting her actions that night were not racially-motivated.
But at the time, she apparently had trouble believing the man she thought was following her was just a neighbor.
A short while later, the Jenkins’ surveillance footage shows, Bishop’s husband returned to their house to collect their stroller.
He said she had told him somebody was chasing her to the home, to which Jenkins wife replied that it was just her husband.
‘You scared the c*** out of me,’ Bishop added as Jenkins walked out onto the porch.
The couple then apologized, while Jenkins explains that he just saw Bishop on the driveway and asked if she was looking for someone.
‘Well, you just have to understand my point of view – being by myself, I have two kids,’ she tries to explain.
When she is then asked why she didn’t believe Jenkins was the homeowner, she claimed, ‘It was the way that you were talking, I was really caught off-guard.’
‘I really hope that you’re not upset with me,’ she says, as Jenkins’ wife suggests they go back into the house and Bishop’s husband tries to wrangle her back into the car.
Jenkins told Bishop he was just admiring his Christmas lights, and was not following her
Bishop and her husband showed up back at the house a little while later to collect their stroller, and tried to apologize to Jenkins and his wife
Speaking about the now-viral incident, Jenkins – who builds homes in the neighborhood – said he was driving home at around 6pm when he noticed Bishop and her two kids in his driveway
Speaking about the now-viral incident, Jenkins – who builds homes in the neighborhood – said he was driving home at around 6pm when he noticed Bishop and her two kids in his driveway.
He said on the podcast that he asked her if she was looking for someone, but Bishop ignored him and ran to his front porch.
Jenkins then proceeded to park his car while the woman rang the doorbell.
When she then ran from the home, screaming for help, Jenkins said he started to worry.
‘I’m in fear because I know what we face as black men in America,’ he told the Nightcap podcast.
Jenkins’ wife Brittany said the incident made them feel ‘unwelcome and unsafe’ in their own neighborhood where they have been living for the past three years with their two sons
He added that he had to ‘control my emotions’ when Bishop said she didn’t believe he was a resident ‘because I knew where it could have escalated.
‘I’m thinking, “Well what if she had a gun? Would she have been running or would I have been running?”‘
His wife also said the incident made them feel ‘unwelcome and unsafe’ in their own neighborhood where they have been living for the past three years, and built their home from the ground up.
‘We have two boys and he leads our family; he protects our family,’ she said of her husband. ‘It’s a lot of weight, it’s a lot of pain, it’s a lot of emotion.’
She added that she thought they would receive a personal apology in the aftermath, even some flowers and a note – but nothing ever came from Bishop, her husband or the homeowners’ association.
‘I reached out to the HOA immediately after it happened,’ the wife said. ‘HOA ghosted me for lack of a better word.’
But in a lengthy live video on her Facebook page claimed she did apologize to the family twice.
She said she had received heavy criticism, with many calling her out for racial profiling, but insisted she did not have any racist intentions.
Bishop has since issued a groveling apology in a Facebook live video
She said she was only concerned with her children’s safety and said she could not see Jenkins’ race at the time because it was dark outside.
‘I will not apologize for making any sort of racist remark, I am the furthest thing from a racist,’ Bishop claimed in the teary-eyed video.
‘I will, however, apologize that my expression could ever come across in such a way or that somebody could think something of that nature of myself, of my family.’
She went on to claim that a registered sex offender once showed up at her house when she lived in Texas, and as a child a man banged on her door during an apparent manhunt.
Bishop also said that after she fled the Jenkins’ front porch, she fled to a neighbor’s home, who informed her that a black family lives there.
She said she then insisted to the neighbor and her husband that the man who was following was a ‘young white man,’ and claimed her neighbor even wrote a letter affirming she described Jenkins as a white man.
Then, on her way home after speaking with Jenkins, Bishop said she saw the cops circling the neighborhood.
The officers then told her there was a misunderstanding, she recounted.
‘There was never racial intent, ever,’ she said as she began to sob.
‘What I apologize for is “Sorry for sharing the story of me being scared. I could absolutely be slower to speak.'”
Still, she said, she is not apologizing for overdoing her reaction – and would even do it again due to her past history of being followed.
‘The way that I reacted, I would do it a million times over because what if. What if that really would have happened?’
Meanwhile, Jenkins said he has no ill-will toward Bishop, and even said he feels like her showing up on his porch that night was an act of God, for him to be an example of what emotional control looks like.
‘I’m a real estate developer, I build houses from the ground up, single-family houses. But I thought that moving to the most wealthy neighborhood in Ohio, that this was the right thing to do,’ he said.
‘But maybe my focus needs to be building communities that’s for us and by us, so that we can inspire people that look like us.’