‘He Did This to Himself,’ We Spoke to the Black Driver Behind Viral Retired LAPD Detective’s Racist Tirade

The following story includes a racist slur. L.A. TACO is choosing to publish the full slur in order to hold this racist retired police officer accountable and not allow for him to cover for his actions.

[dropcap size=big]Y[/dropcap]ou probably saw the video a couple of weeks ago. A retired Los Angeles Police Department Detective hurling racial slurs at a young Black man in Santa Clarita, CA. After the video went viral, we were the first media organization in L.A. to confirm that the video’s detective was former LAPD officer John Motto. This week we spoke to the person on the other side of Motto’s racist tirade, 25-year-old Omari. (Omari’s last name has been withheld from this story because he’s worried about being harassed.)

March 13—It was another Saturday afternoon. Omari was on his way home from his job as an essential worker at a medical office in Santa Clarita when a giant raised pickup truck allegedly forced his Scion TC to collide with a Mercedes Benz. “I was so mad,” Omari told L.A. TACO in an exclusive interview. The drivers all pulled over to the side of the road. Omari called his Dad to tell him what happened and when he got off the phone, “That’s when it started.”

Later identified as retired LAPD detective John Motto, the pick-up truck driver allegedly got in his face. Eventually, Motto was caught on camera calling him a “monkey” and “dumb nigger,” while a woman presumed to be Motto’s wife ordered him to go back to his car.