Add this to the list of things Black people can’t do while being Black: door-to-door sales.
What should’ve been a regular day selling electricity plans turned into a nightmare after this Texas salesman came across the wrong home. The salesman said he was shot at by a neighbor who called him a racial slur.
He’s alive because his work tablet blocked the bullet.
The Reliant Energy salesman, who asked not to be identified, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth he was on the east side of Fort Worth asking homeowners about their electric bills the morning of Feb 8. While on the 3100 block of Purington Avenue to make his rounds, he arrived at a home and was met with a man with a firearm.
“He just came out and just straight pointed the barrel at me and then shot me and told me to get away from here n****. I’m lucky it didn’t hit me it hit the tablet,” he told reporters.
It so happened that he’d decided to wear his tablet around his stomach instead of at his side. He showed the outlet the screen shattered completely by the bullet. After fleeing from the man, the salesman called the police. He said that in his 10 years of being a salesman, he’d never experienced anything like that but always feared the day would come.
“This is the one thing I always fear, getting shot at the door and [today] it happened. I got two daughters. I could’ve been in the hospital dead now,” he told NBC.
Fort Worth Police Officer Buddy Calzada told NBC no one was located inside the home when they responded to the call of shots fired. However, there is still an arrest warrant issued for the homeowner for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and hate crime charges. He could possibly face more charges because the salesman was seemingly shot at for no reason without posing a threat, said Officer Calzada.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Reliant said they are working with law enforcement to investigate the incident.