A Kansas teen said she was terrified when, she says, a man called her a “n—ger bitch” during a road rage incident. That individual turned out to be Edwardsville Councilman Chuck Stites, WDAF-TV reports.
According to 17-year-old Kali Chatmon, she was turning onto a road on May 3 when she saw a black Lincoln.
“He had on his signal like he was going to turn right to where I was, so I proceeded to take my right and we almost collided because he continued to go straight,” Kali explained.
The teen driver felt bad for almost hitting the car and told WDAF that she tried to apologize, only to be cursed out and insulted.
“He was just saying things like, ‘Go back to Baltimore’; then he called me a black n—ger bitch,” Kali told the news station.
Upset, Kali told her parents what happened. They spotted the car at a bar and grill, and it was then that Kali says she discovered that the driver of the vehicle was Councilman Stites.
The teen is demanding an apology and is asking for the councilman to resign, according to KSHB.
“It really hurt. It really hurt my feelings,” she said. “He stopped where he rolled down his back window, started cussing at me and the passenger, and he called me a derogatory term and a racial slur.
“I want an apology and I want him to step down,” she added.
During a meeting of the Edwardsville City Council, Kali’s parents, looking for answers, addressed the council members, but Stites did not say anything during the meeting. A member of the Bonner Springs NAACP, which also wants the councilman to resign, joined the teen’s parents at the meeting.
According to WDAF-TV, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations is currently looking into the incident.
As for Stites, he later told KSHB that it was all a “misunderstanding.”
“There’s an ongoing investigation,” Stites told the station. “It’s a misunderstanding. There’s a lot more to this story than is being told, and I think it would probably be inappropriate for me to comment much more until that investigation is complete."
The councilman added that he had no intention of resigning.