A white mother of two became terrified when she thought a black man was following her while jogging in her affluent Ohio neighborhood – only to later find out he was simply driving into his home.
Michelle Bishop attempted to take refuge in a nearby house, hoping the driver would pass her, but to her horror, DaMichael Jackson turned into the driveway and approached her and her two young children who were now standing on his porch.
That's when Bishop's daughter rang the doorbell.
She was then seen in a Ring video grabbing her son from his stroller while asking the approaching man, “Do you live here?”
“Yes,” Jackson answers immediately. 'You? “I don't believe that,” she mocks him.
'What?' Jackson could be heard asking in the clip.
“I don't believe that,” Bishop repeats, before running away with her son in her arms and her daughter following close behind her, causing the stroller to fall off the Jackson's porch.
In other security footage, she was then seen running through the neighborhood, shouting “help” at the top of her lungs.
Bishop even called the local police, Jackson noted on the Nightcap podcast with Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco.
It turns 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.
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
Although Jackson tells Bishop he lives in the house, she says she doesn't believe him and leaves screaming for help
Bishop has since mounted a groveling defense, insisting her actions that night were not racially motivated.
But at the time, she apparently had trouble believing that the man she thought was following her was just a neighbor.
A short time later, Jackson's surveillance footage shows, Bishop's husband returned to their home to pick up their stroller.
He said she told him someone was chasing her to the house, to which Jackson's wife responded that it was just her husband.
“You scared the hell out of me,” Bishop added as Jackson walked onto the porch.
The couple then apologized, with Jackson explaining that he just saw Bishop in the driveway and asked if she was looking for someone.
“Well, you just have to understand my point of view: because I'm single, I have two children,” she tries to explain.
When then asked why she didn't believe Jackson was your homeowner, she claimed, “The way you talked really caught me off guard.”
“I really hope you're not mad at me,” she says, as Jackson's wife suggests they go back inside and Bishop's husband tries to get her back in the car.
Jackson told Bishop he was just admiring his Christmas lights and not following her
Bishop and her husband returned to the house moments later to retrieve their stroller and attempted to apologize to Jackson and his wife.
Speaking about the now-viral incident, Jackson — who builds homes in the area — said he was driving home around 6 p.m. when he saw Bishop and her two children 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 porch.
Jackson then parked his car while the woman rang the doorbell.
When she then ran out of the house screaming for help, Jackson said he started to worry.
“I'm scared because I know what we face as black men in America,” he told the Nightcap podcast.
Speaking about the now-viral incident, Jackson — who builds homes in the area — said he was driving home around 6 p.m. when he saw Bishop and her two children in his driveway.
Jackson's wife said the incident made them feel “unwelcome and unsafe” in their own neighborhood, where they had lived with their two sons for the past three years.
He added that he had to “keep my emotions in check” when Bishop said she didn't believe he was a resident “because I knew where it could have escalated.”
“I think, 'What if she had had a gun? Would she have run or would I have run?'
His wife also said the incident made them feel “unwelcome and unsafe” in their own neighborhood, where they have lived for the past three years, and have built their home from the ground up.
“We have two boys and he heads 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 contacted the HOA immediately after it happened,” the woman said. “HOA ghosted me for lack of a better word.”
But in a lengthy live video on her Facebook page, she claimed she had apologized to the family twice.
She said she had come under heavy criticism, with many calling her out for racial profiling, but insisted she had no racist intentions.
Bishop has since issued a groveling apology in a Facebook live video
She said she was only concerned about the safety of her children and that she could not see Jenkins' race at the time because it was dark outside.
“I will not apologize for making any racist comment, I am far from a racist,” Bishop claimed in the tearful video.
“However, I would like to apologize that my facial expression could ever come across that way or that anyone could think anything of that nature about me, about my family.”
She further claimed that a registered sex offender once showed up at her home when she lived in Texas, and that as a child a man banged on her door during an apparent manhunt.
Bishop also said that after fleeing the Jackson's porch, she fled to the home of a neighbor, who told her a black family lived there.
She said she then insisted to the neighbor and her husband that the man following was a “young white man,” claiming that her neighbor even wrote a letter confirming that she described Jenkins as a white man.
On her way home after speaking with Jenkins, Bishop said she saw police circling the neighborhood.
The officers then told her that there had been a misunderstanding, she says.
“There was never any racist intent,” she said as she began to sob.
'What I apologize for is: 'I'm sorry I told the story that I was scared. I could definitely talk slower.”
Still, she said, she makes no apologies for exaggerating her response — and would even do it again because of her history of being followed.
“The way I responded, I would do it again a million times because what if. What if that really happened?'
Meanwhile, Jenkins said he harbors no ill will toward Bishop, even saying he felt like showing up on his porch that night was an act of God, that he was an example of what emotional control looks like.
'I'm a real estate developer, I build houses from the ground up, single-family homes. But I thought moving to the wealthiest neighborhood in Ohio was the right decision,” he said.
“But maybe my focus should be on building communities that are for us and by us, so that we can inspire people who look like us.”
