Atlanta Black Star

“I’m giving you a chance; just one chance. I’m going to be watching you, boy.”

That’s the ominous way Ethan Mullins, a 23-year-old Black man, says his new boss, a white man in his 30s, spoke to him just after he was hired as a maintenance worker at a skilled nursing facility for seniors in Parkersburg, West Virginia, in November of 2023.

The threatening comment allegedly made by Dustin Carpenter, the director of maintenance, was overheard by Melissa McKinley, then the human resources director at Worthington HealthCare, a facility owned by CommuniCare health network.