RENO, Nevada — A rural Nevada sheriff is investigating a possible hate crime after a black man collecting signatures for a referendum recorded a confrontation with another man who racially insulted him and said “they have a hanging tree” for people like him.
“I still shake when I think about it,” Ricky Johnson told The Associated Press by telephone Monday as he boarded a plane in northern Nevada en route to his home in Houston, Texas.
Johnson posted a portion of the video of the Aug. 2 incident in Virginia City, Nevada, on social media, and the comments drew swift condemnation from local and state officials. Sponsors of the 10-day Hot August Nights class car event being held at the time said they had revoked the registrations of those identified in the video in which Johnson was confronted.
Storey County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Kern said Monday that the office has completed interviews with Johnson and potential suspects and has turned the case over to the district attorney for a decision on possible charges.
“As far as a hate crime, it could be an element,” Kern told the AP. “There is an enhancement that we are looking at.”
Johnson, who is not seen in the video he posted to TikTok, said a white man called him a racial slur and referred to the “hanging tree” before he began recording the encounter. In the recording, Johnson asks the man to repeat what he said.
A loud, profanity-laced argument ensued, after which a woman told Johnson he was on her turf. He repeatedly asked her not to touch him as they moved the conversation to the street, the video shows.
Kern said Johnson provided the video to investigators. He said no one, suspect or victim, has cooperated with the investigation.
In a statement over the weekend, the sheriff’s office said it does not tolerate racism, inequality or hate speech and wanted to assure the public that it was conducting a thorough investigation.
“But I will say that in general, in Virginia City, this is not something that is happening here,” Kern said. “It’s really a sad thing, but it’s an isolated incident. It’s had a lot of negative impact on all sides, because people are getting negative opinions. People are calling businesses.”
Storey County District Attorney Anne Langer did not respond to an emailed request for comment Monday. A spokeswoman for her office referred calls to County Manager Austin Osborne. Osborne’s office said he was unavailable.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is Black, on Monday offered his support to the Storey County sheriff’s office in its investigation into what he called a “hateful, racist incident” in one of Nevada’s most notorious cities.
Virginia City draws tens of thousands of tourists who stroll the wood-paneled sidewalks lined with old saloons and stores in the Virginia Range, just east of the Sierra, about 30 minutes outside Reno.
It was Nevada’s largest city in the mid-1800s when the discovery of the Comstock Lode brought thousands of silver miners there. Samuel Clemens began his career in newspapers, adopting his pen name Mark Twain, there at the Territorial Enterprise.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo said on social media that he was concerned and disappointed about the incident.
“Racism and hatred have no place in Nevada. This behavior must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” he wrote on X.
The Virginia City Tourism Commission condemned the “hateful and racist” behavior as “abhorrent and inexcusable.”
Johnson worked for Advanced Micro Targeting Inc., a Texas-based voter education and turnout services company. He collected signatures for a proposed Nevada referendum initiative aimed at limiting the fees attorneys collect from clients in personal injury cases.
Johnson said he had been the target of racial slurs before, but the incident in Virginia City was different.
“To be really in the middle of it and not have a way out. You feel like you’re surrounded by all these people. I felt trapped,” he said.
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Associated Press journalist Ken Ritter contributed to this report from Las Vegas.