Police investigating racist road rage incident in Montgomery County

GERMANTOWN, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Montgomery County police are investigating after a racist road rage encounter that was caught on camera.

A Gaithersburg man recorded as another driver opened his car door, called him a racial slur and threatened his life.

"People don't believe you when you say something like this happens," said Crispin Cole. "And this one, I got tired of it."

Cole said he was driving on Frederick Road in Germantown on Wednesday afternoon and stopped prior to a red light to let traffic turn onto the road.

"This fellow behind me got upset, but it was a red light," Cole said. "And he just wanted me to move forward and block the intersection, but I didn't do it. So I saw in my rearview mirror he was flicking me off and I kept seeing him mouth the n-word."

He said when the light turned green, the man rolled down his window, drove by him and threatened to kill him.

Cole said he decided to follow the man so he could record him. He said he did it because people often don't believe that things like this happen, though he acknowledges following the driver was risky and something he wouldn't do again.

In the video he recorded next, the man opens the car door, calls Cole the n-word and says, "I'll (expletive) kill you."

Cole said immediately after the incident, he took the video to Montgomery County Police. A department spokesman says an investigation is underway, though it's unclear if any crime was committed.

He said police want to look at the entire incident since only part of it was recorded.

The driver's license plate is in the recording, so investigators are confident they'll track him down.

"I'm sure if you meet him and speak to him, he would say he doesn't see color. That probably he has a cousin who is married to a black man," said Cole.

He said what happened wasn't particularly surprising because his skin color and accent have made him a target in the past.

Cole, who has an MBA and is looking for a government job or one in international development, said while he wanted to document the encounter, he doesn't plan to dwell on it.

"I don't see America as that," he said. "America is a beautiful, wonderful country and that's what I focus on when stuff like this happens."