Yolanda Jones, and Jody Callahan

The Commercial Appeal

Brandon Levston never expected to be the victim of a vicious racial assault when he stopped to get something to eat before a Grizzlies game Sunday afternoon.

"I hadn't eaten all day so, an hour or hour and half before the game I decided to stop by Starbucks and get something to eat and use my laptop to send some emails," Levston said.

As he maneuvered in Cordova traffic to get to the coffee shop, Levston said he pulled in front of another car, and the driver became upset.

"He flipped me off and rode my tail," Levston said.

The drivers pulled into the parking lot of Wolfchase Galleria, and Levston said he started recording when the other driver, identified as 32-year-old Robert Neil Thompson, began shouting racist and pro-Trump comments at him.

"Trump, Trump, all the way," the video shows Thompson shouting into the rolled-down window of Levston's car.

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After the video went viral Monday and had been seen by millions of people, Thompson walked into the Memphis Police Department's Appling Station precinct to fill out a report claiming that he was being intimidated and threatened.

Thompson and Courtney Hopper, 27, live on a small suburban street in Northeast Memphis. Neighbors on that street Monday told reporters that Thompson was the man in the video, but otherwise said they didn't know much about him. They said he'd been on the street about two years. They said he and Hopper didn't appear to have any children, but did have a dog.

Public records indicate Thompson is originally from West Tennessee. He has no criminal record in Shelby County. Efforts to reach Thompson, Hopper and their families were unsuccessful Monday. It also could not be determined where Thompson worked.

In the video, Thompson calls Levston the N-word several times, tells him black lives don't matter and says that white people got "ripped off" when slavery ended.

"Black lives don't matter, there ain't no proof. Just cause you say something don't mean nothing," Thompson shouts.

At one point in the nearly five-minute tirade, a woman in Thompson's car tries to join the argument. Thompson, though, quickly cuts her off, saying, "Hey, hey, let me handle this. Be a woman," then slams the car door.

Thompson continuously mocks Levston's speech and clothes, calling him a thug, and tells him at one point, "Hey, I'm talking for you."

At the end of the video, Levston turns the camera back on himself and says, "That's exactly why y'all need to get out and vote."

Levston, 29, told The Commercial Appeal Monday that what surprised him most were not the words from the other man, but that the other driver did not back down when he started recording him.

"I've encountered situations like that many times before where people say racist things and others I know have too, but the thing that was most surprising is that he was willing to be so overt about it while I was recording," Levston said.

Since posting the video on Facebook and Instagram, Levston said the reaction has been overwhelming. When the media came to his mother's house, he said he knew he had to speak about the video.

"Mainly what people have been telling me is that they would have done this or that to him," Levston said. "I haven't been a tough guy or the rowdiest guy in my clique of friends, but something like that will make anybody mad."

Levston said he held his emotions in check because of his two children – a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old.

"It is amazing what children will do for your temperament when you actually consider them first," Levston said. "That absolutely stopped me from reacting to hate. I had to try to deal with what was best for me and my family opposed to making an emotional decision and doing something irrational."

He said if he saw Thompson again, he would respond in the same manner he did when he shot the video.

"I would tell the guy, 'I forgive you, God bless and I hope you don't teach that type of hatred to your children because I think hatred is taught and you are not born with it,'" Levston said. "I forgave the guy the moment he got back in his car. I let it go immediately so it would not affect my character."

The video has gone viral and had been retweeted more than 26,000 times Monday. It also drew the attention of "Breaking Bad" actor Aaron Paul, who retweeted a request asking people to help identify the man later determined to be Thompson.