Amylah Majors and Jamaria Gaskins were on Partlow Road in Spotsylvania County around 6:30 p.m. July 20 when they drove over some debris and heard a thumping sound.
They pulled over on the side of the road, turned on their hazard lights and prepared to inspect their vehicle for damage.
But before they could get out of the car, a man exited a nearby home. When he gave them the “thumbs up” sign, they thought he was going to help them. Instead, they say, he and two others began to berate them with racial slurs and threats.
“They called us [N-words], told us we didn’t belong there, and one of them even exposed himself while screaming hate and slurs at us,” Majors stated on a crowdfunding page.
Two Spotsylvania County residents are facing misdemeanor charges after the incident in the 4300 block of Partlow Road that has drawn the attention of the county’s branch of the NAACP and other social justice activists.
Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office Maj. Delbert Myrick said more charges could be filed against Mark Goodman and Elizabeth Wolfrey, who were recorded taunting the Black couple from Richmond. Majors and Gaskins were in the area visiting Gaskins’ mother, a resident of neighboring Caroline County.
Wolfrey, 32, is charged with one count of pointing and brandishing a firearm, while Goodman, 59, is facing a charge of indecent exposure after he was recorded exposing his backside to the couple. A third person recorded during the incident was not charged with a crime “at this time,” Myrick said.
On gofundme.com, Majors provided details on the incident that she claims landed her in the hospital with serious injuries.
After Wolfrey, who was photographed holding a gun, allegedly pointed the weapon, Majors crashed their vehicle.
“As we tried to leave, all three of them jumped into vehicles and chased us down the road,” Majors stated. “One of them rode up beside us on a 4-wheeler and aimed a gun directly at my head through the driver’s window. In that moment, we truly believed we weren’t going to make it out alive. While fleeing, we were chased into a crash. I was ejected from the car.”
Majors said she woke up in the hospital with a fractured spine, broken clavicle, broken rib, severe concussion, and multiple head injuries that required staples. Gaskins and Majors are still suffering from concussions.
“I am beyond grateful to be alive,” Majors stated.
Majors said Gaskins walked away with minor injuries, “but we were both assaulted, traumatized and nearly killed.”
“This was not just an accident — this was an attempted act of violence meant to harm and silence us,” Majors wrote. “We will not be silent. We survived something that should’ve ended us. And now we’re speaking out, not just for ourselves, but for everyone who’s ever been targeted and forced to stay quiet.”
A vehicle belonging to Jamaria Gaskins and Amylah Majors was totaled during a wreck in Spotsylvania County on July 20. (Photo courtesy of Jamaria Gaskins)
Wolfrey was arraigned on Thursday and has a Nov. 20 hearing scheduled in Spotsylvania General District Court. Goodman will be arraigned on Monday and has a hearing scheduled for Nov. 20. Majors and Gaskins said they’re hopeful additional charges will be filed.
Myrick said a sheriff’s office detective is investigating the case and Spotsylvania Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey is involved to determine if more charges are forthcoming — including the possibility of a hate crime. Myrick said the detective interviewed Majors and Gaskins and contacted the suspects’ lawyer, Storr Burks of the Gardner & Burks law firm in Spotsylvania.
Burks was not available for comment.
“We have a detective who is assigned to the case that is taking a deeper dive,” Myrick said. “Part of the evidence he’s looking at is visual evidence, so we have to get our hands on the original video because what you see posted online has probably been altered. By altered, I mean probably been snipped and stuff.”
Myrick added that the victims and the suspects did not know each other. He said the detective is investigating all that transpired during their interaction. He said the car crash is a major part of the inquiry, including what led up to it. Myrick called the video “mind blowing.”
“We can extrapolate data from the car to see what was going on prior to the crash … vehicle dynamics, speed, the duration of speed, stuff like that,” Myrick said. “We’re diving in a lot deeper for digital and other data that will help potentially support or refute potential additional charges.”
Myrick said gathering the data involved with the crash is going to take time. He said the most troubling aspect of the ordeal is the potential of a hate crime. Moe Petway, president of the Spotsylvania NAACP, said the organization is monitoring the investigation and looking to speak to Majors and Gaskins to gather more information.
“The big thing we’re trying to express is we understand the community’s outrage, or concerns or anxiety over this incident and similar incidents that have arisen in the community,” Myrick said. “At the sheriff’s office, we ensure them that we’re taking it seriously and we will examine this or thoroughly investigate this crime and present it to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office to make sure due diligence and justice is done.”
Myrick noted other viral videos that surfaced recently in the county, including one on State Route 3 in which a white man called a Black woman a racial slur and threatened to shoot her during a road rage incident. No one was injured in that dispute, and Myrick said no charges were filed because no victim came forward. It was also a question of whether the incident occurred in Spotsylvania or Fredericksburg.
“This one [in Partlow] is a little more sensitive,” Myrick said. “There were a couple of videos that arose around the same time that potentially deal with hate and racism and stuff like that, and we don’t want that in our community at all. We don’t want racism. We don’t want hate in our community. We want a happy community where everybody gets along.”
Myrick also addressed concerns from the community regarding the timing of the release of information about the Partlow incident. The sheriff’s office posted details to its Facebook page on Thursday, 11 days after it occurred.
Myrick said he did not want to endanger Majors while she was hospitalized.
“I didn’t want to release it because the moment I release it, the families or the suspects themselves know exactly where the victim is,” Myrick said. “I didn’t want to say, ‘Hey this happened,’ and the victim is still in the hospital … Part of it was to protect their identity. Once we saw the video, we knew they were out. That’s why we started releasing information.”
Majors and Gaskins have received $830 out of the $125,000 they’re seeking for their crowdfunding efforts. They said the funds will go toward “overwhelming” medical bills, trauma therapy, legal assistance, lost income and the cost of rebuilding their lives. They also need to replace their vehicle which was totaled.
“This was hate. Targeted. Deliberate. And deadly,” Majors shared. “I’m not sharing this for sympathy — I’m sharing it because silence protects the people who did this. And they walked away while we were left to fight for our lives … This kind of hate is still out here. It’s real. It’s violent. It almost killed us. But we survived for a reason.”
