YouTube Montgomery-Strickland (left) and the woman standing behind her car.
A Facebook Livestream posted by Shaneeka Montgomery-Strickland went viral after she videotaped a woman refusing to let her leave a Kroger parking lot by standing behind her car with her child in a stroller.
The woman, who is white, has been dubbed ‘Kroger Karen’ by various news agencies, including The Insider, Metro Times and Newsone.
The video goes on for more than 10 minutes as at least one passer-by urges the unidentified woman to just move as Montgomery-Strickland repeatedly says she can’t believe what is happening.
What Began in the Store Continued Outside, Montgomery-Strickland Said
According to Fox-2, a local news station, Montgomery-Strickland and her children were shopping in the Kroger in Livonia along Detroit’s famous Eight Mile Road without any issues. But when her son stepped on a shelf to get some Gatorade, she said the woman began yelling at her son.
“She said, ‘Ohmygod, they went up to get they Gatorade and I’m trying to shop here.’ It was irateness,” Montgomery-Strickland told Fox-2. She said she explained to the woman that her son was short and was reaching for an item off the high shelf, then asked her not to yell.
After the incident, Montgomery-Strickland described what she said took place in the store:
“She started getting irate with me and I left it like that,” Montgomery-Strickland said during another Facebook Livestream discussing the event. “I ignored her, but she kept on, just kept on. So … I said let me hurry up and get out of here.”
Montgomery-Strickland said she and her three children were going to their car when the woman from the store came to her car and called her a b***h.
I was very upset with her and I didn’t say nothing to her. And then she decided to stand behind my car like, you know, like she wanted to get something started. So I said, you know what, you have to get from behind my car. So then when I went live with her, she’s like, ‘uh, you can’t put my baby in the thing.’ And I said, ‘I can do what I want to.’
She also said there plenty of other shoppers who saw the incident.
“The lady was just irate and out-of-order ever since we were in the store, like she had a problem with a black woman shopping in that store — for no reason. So then she wanted to deny how she called me out of my name and we already had witnesses and everybody was telling her ‘just move lady, move out of the way, just leave her alone.'”
The Woman Only Moved From Montgomery-Strickland’s Car After Police Arrived
Montgomery-Strickland said she was in the middle of food delivery when the woman refused to move from behind her vehicle.
At one point, the unidentified woman demands that she stop videotaping because her baby is in the video. Montgomery-Strickland responds by saying she is recording what is happening.
Several times, Montgomery-Strickland tries to get the woman to move, stating “I want you from behind my vehicle.”
Two minutes into the video, the unidentified woman says something, to which Montgomery-Strickland responds, “The way you were talking to my kids, you didn’t think they were well-behaved, ma’am. You have been very horrible ma’am and you’re being very horrible now.”
“You can’t hold me here and it’s like you’re holding me hostage. You all see this mess? This is ridiculous,” Montgomery-Strickland says to those passing by.
Nine minutes into the video, Montgomery-Strickland is still asking the woman to move. “All I want is for you to get from behind my vehicle,” she says.
Once police arrived, the woman immediately moved from behind Montgomery-Strickland’s car and hustled to speak to the officers first.
In a later Facebook Livestream, Montgomery-Strickland relayed what happened:
They were like, ‘delete the video’ and I was like, ‘I don’t have to.’ And they were like, ‘yeah, you don’t have to.’ And I’m not. So they asked me what law did she break and I said a lot. I said basically I felt hostage because she’s standing there telling me that I can’t leave and I’m a grown woman with three kids. Now if I (would) have backed over her, they would have been like, ‘Oh, well, you in the wrong.’
They ended up writing a police report number. But she took pictures of my plate and everything and I didn’t appreciate it; I don’t like how she talked to me or how she talked to my kids and I refuse to shop in a place of business and have somebody act like that; it’s really disrespectful. I hate that the kids had to see that and they were like, ‘that lady is racist’ and I said, ‘yes she is’ — because she had no cause and didn’t nobody do nothing to her and she basically attacked us without putting her hands on (us).
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