Hispanic family at Texas Rangers game harassed by racist man hours after El Paso shooting
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: A Hispanic family has claimed that they were harassed by a white fan during a Rangers game in Arlington on August 3, just hours after a gunman posted an anti-immigrant manifesto and opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 22 people.
Fort Worth's Jessica Romero said that she and her family were on the receiving end of unprovoked hatred from a man who complained about Hispanic fans sitting around his family during the game. Romero added that the man made his disdain for them "perfectly clear" shortly after the game began. Texas Rangers are currently investigating the claims made by the family and have reached out to them, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Romero took to Facebook to share her experience, writing: "And he just so happened to have a Hispanic family (us) sitting in front of him and another one sitting directly behind him." She posted a picture along with the post which showed a white man holding up his middle finger as Romero's family took a selfie at the game.
She added that the man, in the second inning of the game, got irritated when a little boy behind him kicked his seat and he launched into a hate-filled racist tirade.
"And for the next 3 innings I had to hear him complain about all the illegal immigrants that were surrounding him at the game," Romero's post continued. "That he should kick little Speedy Gonzalez all the way back to Mexico for kicking his seat." She added that the harassment forced her family to leave the game during the fifth inning. The Rangers went on to beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4 in extra innings.
"Sadly this is not the first or the last time we will ever experience this kind of racism," Romero wrote in her post, which eventually went viral with over 58,000 people sharing it as of Tuesday, August 6.
Ramon Romero, Jessica Romero's husband, told the outlet that the majority of the harassment occurred when he went to get his son a hot dog. When he came back, his wife told him what the man sitting behind them had said.
Rangers' team officials, meanwhile, released a statement saying that the incident violated their fan code of conduct, and also apologized for the "offensive behavior" the couple and their six-year-old son had to endure.
"After learning of this incident on Sunday, we reached out to the Romero family and pledge to make their next trip to Globe Life Park a memorable and enjoyable experience," the team said in a statement to the outlet.