On September 26 in Portland Oregon, Timothy Warren, an African American man, was faced with extremely aggressive racial slurs from Joseph Magnuson. Warren was simply driving a FedEx vehicle delivering packages when he was yelled at by Magnuson for “driving too fast.” At first, Warren addressed the situation calmly; however tensions rose when Magnuson swung his hand at Warren, so in an act of self-defense, he punched Magnuson once across the face. He later died due to his poor health, and from hitting the ground in his unstable condition.
Even though he killed Magnuson, Warren will not be charged with murder because he indeed was trying to simply protect himself from what Magnuson was saying. In no way was Magnuson attempting to kill the man, so the authorities are calling it a homicide.
Magnuson initially felt the need to initiate and tell Warren about the speed he was driving at followed with continuous racial slurs, but after a thorough investigation, it was decided that he was driving at a safe speed. The punch was not enough to have killed the man, so it is thought that there were many other health issues that lead to the death of Joseph Magnuson.
There were roughly about six eyewitnesses on the scene, all with different views about what they saw, however, only three 3 witnessed the fight itself. All came together and said that Warren was well in his right to have punched him, he was legally allowed to get out of his truck and challenge Magnuson’s racist ways.
Magnuson lived at a park near where this took place with a friend. When he was getting interviewed, he only gave the name “Mr. Bayle.” He told the person who interviewed him that he thought none of these unfortunate events would have happened had Warren kept driving.
Warrens job status is currently unknown, FedEx will not share any employee information at this time. A FedEx Ground statement on the incident issued reads: “FedEx Ground fully cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation of this unfortunate incident. We extend our condolences to all those affected.” The statement says the company would not comment on Warren’s current employment status: “We do not share details concerning the personnel of contracted service providers.” The FedEx company would like to truly apologize for what had happened and for all of those affected by the incident.
by Olivia Lapioli
The Claw 