Lee Allen: Black man recalls White mob attack in Washington after woman falsely accused him of stealing her car
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON: In late February last year, Lee Allen, an African-American father had made a quick trip to the Walmart on Sprague and returned to his car parked in the parking lot with his two children, Max and Lexi, inside when he was approached by a White woman who came and stood in front of his car, blocking his way and asking him repeatedly, "How did you get this car?"
What happened next was captured in a video by Lexi on the phone from inside the car. Gradually a mob of White men and women gathered around the car and started demanding Lee Allen and his children to get out of the vehicle and give the car back to the woman. The harrowing footage, which had gone viral last year, was played in the A&E crime show, 'I Survived A Crime', which also interviewed Lee, Max and Lexi to get their account of the nightmarish experience.
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An angry mob in Spokane, WA surrounds a black father & his 2 kids to wrongfully accuse him of stealing pic.twitter.com/ZAyXFsso5Q
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 9, 2020
In the clip, the woman continued to claim that the car Lee was driving was hers before telling bystanders that he was driving off with her car. "Can you get out? It's my car," the woman yelled at Lee again. Bystanders approached the vehicle and surrounded it from all sides. At the time, Lee could be heard telling his son, Max, to call 911 moments before one of them proceeded to open the driver's door, telling Lee the car belongs to the woman and demanding an explanation from him.
"This is not her car," Lee is heard saying before shutting the door on the man, which makes him yelp out and start cursing Lee. The man's name was Lawton Miller who later gave an interview to KHQQ6. "She said, 'he's trying to steal my car!' So I got out, walked over there and opened the door," Miller said. "I said 'hey, this lady said you're stealing her car,'" he said before Lee slammed the door on his hand.
Soon, however, the mob started hitting the car's door repeatedly as Lee's children started crying and appeared terrified and Lee himself appeared to be in distress. One of the bystanders threw his bicycle at the car as the situation worsened. One young boy climbed onto the hood of the vehicle before Lee could attempt to make a getaway. Miller then started to follow Lee's car. He later clarified that he chose to tail Lee's car because of the kid who was on top of the hood.
"This kid jumps on the car. What do I do now? I've got to get this kid off the car," Miller said. "I don't know if this guy knows it who's driving this car, (but) if this kid falls off and he runs over and kills that kid, he's going to prison for murder. He's no good to his family anymore."
The woman was charged with disorderly conduct while the man who jumped on the hood was arrested on a separate warrant. Miller was not charged and it was last reported that authorities were still looking for the man who threw his bicycle at the car. At the time deputies said that the individual "is likely to be charged".
"I grew up with no parents. So I always tried to be the best dad I could be to my kids and it's hard to think about it," Lee said as he broke down in tears during the show. Lexi said her father was an inspiration to her and she still faces difficulty in thinking about the incident as it brings back a lot of memories of her being scared.