CREDIT: Screencap via CNYCentral.com

THINK PROGRESS

Initially, no charges were pressed, but police have renewed the investigation.

Last month, 15-year-old Chase Coleman got lost during a cross country race in Rochester.

According to witnesses, Coleman — who is autistic, nearly nonverbal, and African American — was running down the middle of the road when Martin MacDonald, a 57-year-old white man, got out of his car and shoved the teenager to the ground. Before driving away, MacDonald allegedly shouted, “Get out of here!”

Chase’s mother, Clarise Coleman, wanted to press charges against MacDonald, but a judge in Rochester initially denied the request for an arrest warrant.

After the case received an onslaught of media attention, however, police in Rochester changed their minds. They announced on Monday that they are renewing their investigation into the case.

“If that man had been black and Chase had been white, and that [police] report went in, he’d have been in jail,’’ Clarise told Syracuse.com.

According to the initial incident report, MacDonald never denied pushing Chase.

“When [the deputy] asked [MacDonald] why he did that, he replied that he thought Chase was going to mug his wife and take her purse,” the report reads, via the Washington Post. “MacDonald’s wife was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the [incident]. When [the deputy] asked him why he thought that, MacDonald told him that some youths had broke into his car recently and that crossed his mind. MacDonald went on to say that Chase wasn’t responding to him telling him to move out of the road.”

MacDonald particularly stressed that the people who broke into his car recently were black men, making this case seem like a pretty clear-cut case of racial profiling in the eyes of Syracuse city councilor Susan Boyle.

“If that man had been black and Chase had been white, and that (police) report went in, he’d have been in jail.”

After finding out about the incident on Facebook, Boyle wrote a letter to Monroe County District Attorney’s Office asking them to explain the lack of charges.

“For an Autistic, nonverbal student to have joined a team, to be competing in organized athletic programs and acting as a part of a team and community is the kind of success we strive for,” Boyle wrote. “For all of this progress to be lost due to a racist, aggressive, unprovoked attack on a disabled African-American minor with absolutely no consequences is, for lack of a stronger word, unacceptable.”

With the police investigation starting back up, Clarise Coleman hopes that her son will regain his love for running. It took the family many tries to find a sport that made Chase happy, but since the assault, he has refused to go to practice and even turned in his uniform to his coach.

“[MacDonald] snatched a joy out of my child that took a long time to establish,” she said.

Lindsay Gibbs