A white mother-of-two who panicked when she thought a black man was following her has tearfully claimed it was a “misunderstanding” after receiving death threats.
Michelle Bishop was jogging with her young children in their upscale Ohio neighborhood when she became convinced DaMichael Jenkins was inappropriately following her in his car.
A panicked bishop tried to take refuge in a nearby home but was left shaken when Jenkins pulled his truck into the driveway and got out. He told the concerned mother that he lived there as his wife and Brittany answered the door.
“I don't believe that,” Bishop said before taking off with her son in her arms and her daughter right behind her, causing the stroller to fall off the Jenkins' porch. She then ran through the neighborhood hysterically calling for “help.”
However, it turned out that on the night of the incident, November 19, he was just on his way home and drove slowly through the neighborhood to admire his Christmas lights.
The interaction recently went viral after the video was shared on a community Facebook page.
Bishop soon released an apology video to Jenkins and his wife, saying: I never wanted to make anyone feel left out – in denial that it was a 'malicious racial profiling incident'.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, the mother-of-two said claims she was racist are “completely false” and the result of a “major misunderstanding.”
Michelle Bishop, a mother of two who panicked when she thought a black man was following her, has tearfully claimed it was a 'misunderstanding' after receiving death threats
Jenkins told Bishop he was just admiring his Christmas lights and not following her
Bishop further revealed that she had apologized to the Jenkins family several times before the video was posted, but they would not accept it.
She had assumed the neighbors were now at peace, but was shocked after Ring CCTV footage of the incident was posted on a local Facebook group, sparking rumors that she was being discriminatory.
“It's causing tremendous devastation to our family in every way,” she said.
'Our family, our companies. We are currently receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of threats in our direct messages, on our phones and voicemails calling stores. But some of the threats we have received have become death threats.”
Text messages reviewed by Dailymail.com revealed threats that read: 'YOU and your children should die slowly' and 'Bye CEO [laughing emoji] now your husband is going to be a single father.”
A message she shared with Fox also read: “You and your children deserve to die slowly and you must kill yourself or it will be done for you.”
'We know who you are and where you live. Your husband will come home to the fact that he is a single father. You should be hanged in public,” another also said.
The threats have also led to the temporary closure of her business, a fitness brand called The Ladies Edge.
Surveillance footage shows Michelle Bishop and her children on the porch of DaMichael Jenkins' home after they walked away from him as he pulled into his driveway
She was jogging with her two young children in their upscale Ohio neighborhood when she became convinced DaMichael Jenkins (pictured) was inappropriately following her in his car.
“There are several that are very graphic and violent when it comes to our children that I don't want to share here.
“Our businesses have seen tremendous devastation, with one of them having to temporarily close due to death threats. They called our store and said they were going to kill all the employees. So it has huge consequences for us,” she told the channel through tears.
Additionally, Bishop claimed she had “absolutely” no idea Jenkins was black and even told the neighbor of the house she was running to that the driver might be white.
“The headlights were behind me and the first time I looked at his truck in the driveway, the headlights were there and I wasn't trying to look at him specifically,” Bishop said.
'I was talking about the situation. I had absolutely no idea what he looked like. Like I said, I thought he was a young white man. It was all a big misunderstanding. That's all it was.'
After the first incident, Bishop returned to the Jenkins home with her husband to retrieve her stroller. Jenkins' wife, Brittany, answered the door and asked her why she was afraid of her husband.
Bishop's husband intervened and said she thought she was being “pursued.” Brittany informed the couple that Jenkins lived there and was not pursuing her.
Jenkins then came out of the house and said he didn't understand how he could have scared her. He then explained that he was only slowing down to admire his Christmas lights.
Bishop soon released an apology video to Jenkins and his wife, saying he never wanted to make anyone feel left out — denying it was a “malicious racial profiling incident.”
After the first incident, Bishop returned to the Jenkins home with her husband to retrieve her stroller. Jenkins' wife, Brittany, answered the door and asked her why she was afraid of her husband
She had previously taken to her Facebook account and gone live for almost half an hour to explain what had happened, but commentators accused her of racial profiling and failing to take responsibility for the race-driven mistake.
“Well, you just have to understand my point of view: because I'm single, I have two children,” she said.
Bishop then accused Jenkins of not being friendly enough when he entered his home.
The Bishop family awkwardly left the Jenkins home, but the tensions didn't end there.
After their video went viral, the Jenkins family was invited to tell their story on the Nightcap podcast with Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.
Jenkins said he was scared when Bishop started running and screaming for help.
'At that moment I'm scared. I'm scared because I know what we face as black men in America,” he told Sharpe and Johnson.
The couple said the incident made them feel unsafe and left out in their own neighborhood.
They added that Bishop never reached out to them for a sincere apology and that the closest they got was her message on Facebook Live.
When asked for comment, Bishop claimed to Dailymail.com: “I have made multiple attempts to apologize directly to the Jenkins family, in addition to apologizing in this moment and through public videos. The claim that I have not sincerely apologized is not true.”
Brittany and DaMichael Jenkins discussed the incident on a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco's Nightcap podcast
She had previously taken to her Facebook account and gone live for almost half an hour to explain what had happened, but commentators accused her of racial profiling and failing to take responsibility for the race-driven mistake.
But now Bishop simply wants to reconcile with the Jenkins family.
“I think what happened that night was a big misunderstanding,” Bishop continued. 'I hold their hearts and hear their views on things. I've never been in their shoes.
“I don't know what they're dealing with. I can't speak to that. So when I hear their point of view and how he felt, I understand that. But it was really a big misunderstanding. I really wish, I hope and wish they would understand that that night I was a mama bear trying to protect my children.
'That's all. It was a huge misunderstanding and if I had the chance, as I said, I would like to reconcile that relationship.”
Jenkins and Bishop live in an affluent community called Evans Farm in Delaware County, Ohio. The county is the wealthiest in the state.
The median household income in Delaware County is $119,030, while the median home price is $473,000.
Bishop's home previously cost $890,000.
