Afro-Latino Man Was Assaulted at Work by White Mother and Son Duo, Now There’s a Warrant for Son’s Arrest

Screenshot via YouTube

Over the past few years, its become clear that it is almost never safe to be a Black person in the U.S. Black people have been killed for running, walking or simply sitting in their house. People have called the police on Black people when they are bird-watching or sitting in a Starbucks waiting for a business meeting. And although the racial reckoning of 2020 has opened many people’s eyes to the reality of anti-blackness in the U.S., some people are still at their old ways. 

Two of those people are 27-year-old Edward Brennan and his mother, Bitsy Brennan, who assaulted and called the police on an Afro-Latino man named Johnny Martinez when he was simply doing his job. 

Luckily for Martinez, he captured the entire ordeal on camera and was able to prove the assault to the police.

It all started on the evening of November 27 when the Brennans approached Martinez as he was working in the garage of the apartment complex that they live in. Martinez works at a car-booting company and was checking the parking permits of the cars in the lot.

Yet something about Martinez’s look and behavior did not sit well with the Brennans, so they approached him and asked him “How did you get here?” and told him, “You don’t belong here.” The mother-son duo then demanded to see Martinez’s ID. When Martinez told them repeatedly to mind their own business, the exchange escalated into violence. 

When Martinez tried to leave the conversation and continue to do his job, Edward Brennan attempted to strike him in the face.

“When he attacked me, he swung, he almost hit me in the face,” Martinez told The Daily Beast. “He broke this bottle opener off of my keys. When I went to go pick it up, he lunged.”

Allegedly, Martinez then pushed Brennan away to defend himself, causing Brennan to fall on the ground (you can see this part clearly in the video). Eventually, Bitsy Brennan called the police. 

“There’s some gentleman down here and we asked him what he was doing down here and he said it was none of our business and he’s kind of been nasty toward us, so we kind of are trying to figure out why this person’s in the parking deck,” she said. 

She added: ”And he will not show us his ID. It’s a secure building.” 

According to Martinez, the police eventually showed up, but by that time, the Brennans had already left. But in the five-minute video, we can still hear Edward Brennan yelling and cursing at Martinez off-screen after their altercation.

After Martinez posted the video to his personal YouTube page, the video went viral, landing on the front page of Reddit and grabbing national attention. 

Martinez filed assault charges against Edward Brennan and now, there is a warrant for Brennan’s arrest. According to the warrant, “a reasonable person would regard [Brennan’s] contact as extremely offensive or provocative,” causing Martinez to fear “imminent bodily injury.”

Bitsy Brennan, who was previously a wealth management associate at UBS Bank, has been let go from her job, according to the company. 

In response, the Brennan’s have filed assault charges against Martinez, claiming that he pushed Brennan to the ground and “kicked him while he was down” although the video clearly shows that isn’t what happened. 

Edward Brennan is set to be booked later this month.