Here we have an Edom in its natural enviroment.
A Winston-Salem woman was charged Wednesday with misdemeanor simple assault for her role in a confrontation last week with a man and his children at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center that he recorded and posted on YouTube.
Donna Lorraine Bridger, 68, of Sunderland Road was served with a criminal summons by a Winston-Salem police officer. She is accused of assaulting Isaiah Baskins on April 14 at the hospital.
Bridger is scheduled to appear May 3 in Forsyth District Court.
Bridger couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment. No one answered the door at her home.
Baskins, 25, said he was confronted April 14 by Bridger when he took his 3-week-old daughter to a doctor’s appointment at Brenner Children’s Hospital in the medical center. He said the incident started when Bridger complained about his two other children making noise in the lobby on the seventh floor.
Baskins, who is black, said Bridger, who is white, kicked and pushed him. In the video, Baskins tells Bridger to take her hands off him. Baskins said he wasn’t injured.
Baskins also accused Bridger of calling him the “N-word” during their confrontation but before he began recording. The nearly seven-minute video has been viewed more than 450,000 times.
The video begins with Bridger walking away from Baskins and Baskins saying, “There’s something wrong with this volunteer. She’s acting a fool.”
Bridger pushes a baby stroller out of the family resource center and tells Baskins “you’re getting out.”
Baskins told her he was recording the encounter. She responded, “I don’t have to put up with you,” and that she didn’t have to look at his gray underwear and baggy pants.”
She shouted on the phone for security to remove Baskins and his children. Bridger appeared to reach toward the children, then shouted “get out, get out” and “get your damn underwear out of here ... I don’t want to see it” and “dirty old tramp.”
Baskins and Katie Thomas of Winston-Salem, who was in the hospital lobby with her children, filed a complaint about Bridger with the hospital security officers, Baskins said. Hospital officials filed a report about the incident with the Winston-Salem Police Department.
Wake Forest Baptist officials apologized for Bridger’s behavior and dismissed her as a volunteer.
jhinton@wsjournal.com (336) 727-7299 @jhintonWSJ
