Tag: Race Relations

The mother of an autistic New York teen is seeking answers after she says her son was assaulted for no reason.

The Democrat And Chronicle reports:

Chase Coleman, 15, was out running with his cross country team when he became lost and disoriented.

Witnesses report that the boy who does not speak and has autism, was then assaulted by a white man who told him to “get out of here” and shoved him to the ground.

An allegation of an assault on an autistic teenager from Syracuse in Cobbs Hill Park two weeks ago has prompted charges of racism and favoritism from the boy’s mother and is drawing national media attention.

Martin MacDonald, 57, of Pittsford, acknowledged to police that he shoved Chase Coleman, 15, to the ground during a physical altercation on a roadway in the park on the afternoon of Oct. 14, according to the police report of the incident.

Chase, who is autistic and cannot speak, is a member of his high school’s cross country team and was in the park participating in a road race.

The police report cited two witnesses, one of whom, Collin Thompson, 31, was jogging in the park and told police that she saw MacDonald get out of the vehicle and push Chase to the ground in the middle of the road and yell, “Get out of here.”

Police did not interview the second witness, whose name and information was provided to an officer by Chase’s mother. That witness, however, told the Post-Standard that he was bicycling and saw MacDonald “get out of his car and yell at Chase for several minutes.”

“I see a grown man, who is quite tall and fairly heavy … exit the vehicle and give this young man a shove that puts him back 10 feet and flat on his butt,” the witness, Kris Van Metter, 42, was quoted as saying.