Jermaine Jones Bio – Jermaine Jones Wiki
Two white men in Sanford, Fla., were arrested after a Black teenager Jermaine Jones said he was racially profiled, and his car was hit by a rock while driving through their neighborhood.
AGE:
Jermaine Jones is 16 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
Howard Hughes, 61, and Donald Corsi, 52, allegedly damaged a white Mercedes driven by 16-year-old Jermaine Jones, who recorded the aftermath of the incident on his phone and posted footage on Instagram.
“Get out of my neighborhood,” the men can be heard yelling during the tense confrontation, accusing the teenager of “burning out racing through my neighborhood.”
A shattered car window can be seen in the video, which was taken down from Jones’ page but has been posted elsewhere.
Bailey Kennedy, 15, was a passenger in Jones’ car, Buzzfeed News reports. The teens were reportedly heading to a friend’s home to spend the night, according to WESH 2 News.
“I was racially profiled while driving through my friend’s neighborhood. They didn’t like the way I was driving, so they felt the need to hit my car with a cone, and throw a rock through my window,” Jones wrote in the original Instagram caption, according to Orlando Weekly. “All I wanted to do was de-escalate until the police came because I wasn’t about to get charges pressed on me for no reason.”
Corsi faces felony charges for damage to property and hitting a vehicle with a weapon while Hughes is charged with felony property damage and misdemeanor battery, according to Seminole County booking records.
Hughes allegedly hit one of the teens with the traffic cone, WESH 2 News reports.
Both suspects were released on bond, according to The Daily Beast. The Washington Post reports the suspects are due back in court on Aug. 16.
Hughes and Corsi “aggressively approached” Jones’ vehicle, “assaulted” the teens, and made “verbal threats,” according to an arrest report obtained by NBC News, which notes that the Sanford neighborhood where the incident took place is a gated community.
In a 911 call published by Orlando Weekly, Jones tells the dispatcher the men “tried to pull guns on us.”
He also admits on the call that he “wasn’t supposed to be driving like that.”
“I was terrified and thanking God that nothing happened to my son,” Niko Jones, the driver’s mother, told WESH 2 News. “There’s no doubt in my mind that had he been white, this would not have happened to him. It had to be his skin color.”
Jones’s father wrote in a Facebook post that his son initially stopped and apologized to the men, who “cut him off” when he tried to leave.
“I am glad no one got hurt,” CJ Jones wrote in the post. “This will definitely leave a scar on my son’s mentality moving forward.”
A decade ago, Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford while returning on foot from a convenience store where he bought candy and iced tea.
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good,” Zimmerman, then 28, said in a 911 call, telling the dispatcher Martin, 17 at the time, was wearing “a dark hoodie.”
The deadly shooting led to vigils and protests around the country that continued for months and sparked a national conversation about racial profiling.
Zimmerman claimed he was defending himself under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” laws. He was acquitted of murder charges in July 2013.