Hilary Brooke Mueller, a white woman, decided that she was the police, security and a private investigator, on top of being racist.
Mueller blocked D’Arreion Toles of St. Louis, a Black man, from entering his own apartment building, Elder Shirt Lofts, and proceeded to harass him and follow him to his apartment.
She kept asking what unit he lived in and to show his keys. Toles, stayed calm and asked her repeatedly to move and told her she had no right to question him. Surprise, Mueller said she did, because she lived on the third floor.
“You are blocking me into my building. This is my building as well. So, I need you to get out of my way,” said Toles.
She said she was “uncomfortable,” to which Toles replied that was her issue, not his.
Toles recorded her and the video went viral.
Once inside the building, she continued to ask him questions and followed him into the elevator and to his apartment. Once he pulled out his keys, she changed her tune and tried to introduce herself as his neighbor.
Toles said he wanted nothing to do with her. He later answered his door to police that were called on him!
“I was kind of blown away, shocked and like wow,” said Toles. “I am just glad I had my camera out. If I did not have my camera out, I feel it could have gone a totally different way.”
The Metropolitan Police Department in St. Louis said it responded to a 911 call that “was made because the caller did not know if the male subject was a tenant.”
Mueller’s actions not only didn’t sit well with her neighbor Toles, but also didn’t sit well with her employer, Tribeca Luxury Apartments. She was fired on Sunday.
The company, not affiliated with the Mueller and Toles’ residence, said, in a statement, that the interaction was “disturbing.”
“The Tribeca-STL family is a minority-owned company that consists of employees and residents from many racial backgrounds,” the statement said. “We are proud of this fact, and do not, and never will, stand for racism or racial profiling at our company. After a review of the matter, the employee has been terminated and is no longer with our company.”
The local news station tried to interview Mueller and buzzed her unit and also called numbers listed for her, but she never answered.
Toles reflected on the incident. “At the end of the day, why would she call the police on me I just walked in and went to my house.”
“It’s pretty sad.”
Reader Question: Do you think Toles was justified in his responses; should he have expected the police to be called Should he have called the police
