Woman who threatened to 'kill all of ya' Somali Americans will be fired

Authored by grandforksherald.com and submitted by indiancountry4

“Whenever she gets here, she will be let go.” said a person at Fargo accounting firm Horab and Wentz, who would only identify himself as one of the firm's partners on Wednesday, July 26.

The man said of Amber Elizabeth Hensley: “Her views are not ours." A couple phones could be heard ringing in the background.

“Our phone has been ringing this morning hundreds of times. It’s ringing right now,” the man said. “We’re the ones getting the brunt of this. No one else is.”

"We're gonna kill all of ya. We're gonna kill every one of ya," the woman is heard saying in the video as she leans into the passenger window to confront 21-year-old Sarah Hassan, who was recording.

"I wanted everyone to see what happens to us every day," Hassan said. "I was so scared."

She was in the car with her sister, Leyla Hassan, 20, and their friend, 23-year-old Rowda Soyan. All three women live in Fargo and are originally from Somalia. They were shopping at Walmart Tuesday afternoon before going to the movie theater when they parked next to the woman.

Hensley, whose Twitter account expresses support for President Trump, commented on Facebook about the video, identifying herself and apologizing to the women.

"It was not a Christian like thing to do AT ALL and wish I could take it back, but I lost my cool and I can't. I am terribly sorry," Hensley wrote in her post. "I just wish that the whole video could be shown. And the things that were stated before she starts taping. She had parked way too close to my car and I couldn't get in, when I asked her to move she refused, I asked her again and she swore at me calling me a fat b-tch."

"But there are absolutely no excuses. I am in tears with regret and will take any form of punishment deemed fit."

Sarah Hassan said she started recording when she realized they needed evidence of the woman's "unacceptable" behavior. They called police around 5:30 p.m. and showed officers the video and the woman's license plate number as they filed a report.

Officers did not return phone calls Tuesday evening.

The women shared their concerns and the video with Hukun Dabar, executive director of Afro American Development Association, a Moorhead nonprofit. Dabar then shared the video on Facebook

Within two hours of posting the video Tuesday night, it was shared more than 530 times.

"What makes me sad is you don't see any leaders from Fargo confronting this issue and saying it's not acceptable in our community," he said. "They need to speak about this issue and have it be at the forefront."

Fargo-Moorhead is supposed to be a "welcoming city," Dabar said, but "when they don't talk about this issue it shows something else."

Dabar also called out the inaction of bystanders at Walmart who didn't defend the women or say anything to Hensley. He tied this incident to a recent case of discrimination in Moorhead.

A Somali-American man was assaulted while moving into an apartment on July 2 by two white men from the area who said, "What are these n---- doing here?" at the time of the attack, according to eyewitnesses.

Police arrested the men, James Patrick Billiot and Justin William Rifanburg, who were charged with simple assault, a misdemeanor. CAIR, a Muslim civil rights group in Minnesota, urged state and federal law enforcement officials to investigate what they called a "possible hate crime."

"It's happening again," Dabar said in reference to the two instances of discrimination in the community.

Forum staff writers Helmut Schmidt and Ross Torgerson contributed to this report.

yonicwater on July 27th, 2017 at 14:43 UTC »

This is the Wal-Mart I go to in a nearly daily basis for various reasons. Fargo has had a huge influx of refugees in the last 5-10 years, and the city is also growing very quickly. It's brought about a lot of interactions that most people living in Fargo wouldn't have expected 15 years ago. Long-term residents are very resentful and wary of this change, and I've seen a lot more openly "anti-foreigner" sentiments since I've lived here than in other areas of the Midwest.

This Wal-Mart is basically a ground for fights. In two days I saw someone get stabbed while another, completely uninvolved man was lying bloody and passed out nearby, and two women right near the entrance throwing clothes at each other while screaming about how trashy the other one is.

Navigating the Wal-Mart parking lot always seems to raise tensions.

hybridadam1386 on July 27th, 2017 at 14:07 UTC »

Can you imagine the HR person firing her?

"I've told you so many times, Susan: you can't go around just yelling at brown people. They got you on you camera this time."

nlx0n on July 27th, 2017 at 14:06 UTC »

Direct to video.

https://youtu.be/5_CKaH1D6xg