Florida mother claims son 'racially profiled' in aftermath of Hurricane Milton

Disturbing video shows the moment a group of adult white men followed a black teenager around his neighborhood in Florida , in what the boy's mother is claiming is racial profiling.

The unidentified teenager had gone on a walk around his neighborhood in Sarasota on October 10 to talk to his girlfriend on his cellphone following Hurricane Milton , his mother, Whitney Portela, wrote on Facebook as she shared the video.

It shows the group of white men harassing the teenager about what he was doing in the neighborhood, saying he 'doesn't belong' and they have 'never seen' him before as they followed him for blocks.

At one point, one of the men could even be seen getting out of his white BMW and apparently trying to grab something out of the passenger seat before he is stopped by another neighbor who accuses him of 'harassing' the teen.

The men only seem to back down when a sheriff's vehicle later arrives.

The altercation seemed to begin with a group of men asking if the teenager was part of the neighborhood.

'I've never seen you before and you're walking around my house,' a man in a gray shirt says. 'You've walked past my house four times and I don't know you.'

But the teen assures the men, 'I'm a part of the neighborhood.'

One of the men then accuses him of approaching his wife.

'I don't know who you're talking about,' the teenager replies. 'And I think I can walk around my neighborhood.'

He proceeds to accuse the men of harassing him

A man in the backwards hat and blue shirt could then be seen coming out of his BMW as his friends apparently warn him not to do anything rash, telling him, 'Steve, Steve, Steve.'

But he is stopped by another man in a turquoise shirt.

In another four-minute long video, which Portela posted to TikTok in its entirety on Tuesday, begins with her son saying, 'They're still following me, what the f***?' as he shows the group of white men walking over his shoulder and another man riding his bicycle to his left.

'This is stupid,' he says, before speaking into his camera.

'Hey they ain't never seen a black n***** still in the hood,' the teenager alleged.

At that point, one of the men in a gray shirt and blue shorts reprimands him for filming them, as he and the man in the blue shirt and a backwards baseball cap, accuses the teen of trying to attack the other man's wife.

The teen dismisses the idea that he would attack anyone's wife, but the men continue to harass him, asking him where he came from.

'You're more interested in me than your wife,' the teen replies, to which one of the men could be heard saying: 'You're crossing the line bro.'

'Hey, you've been crossing the line like you're going to hit me,' the teenager shoots back. 'I want you to do it, for real.'

The men go on to call him a 'f***ing loser' and say, 'We know what you want, buddy.'

'I'm a loser, and you're getting out your car to follow me?' the teenager asks as he crosses the street to another block.

'C'mon make it make sense!'

He then says he was just walking around his neighborhood, and tells a family passing by, 'They're creepers, they're following me.'

Eventually a deputy in a sheriff's vehicle arrives on the scene and starts asking the teenager what happened, to which he replies, 'They're mad because I'm in a neighborhood like this.'

The incident came in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Portela wrote on Facebook, saying her son 'wanted to walk the neighborhood to talk to his girlfriend on his phone because we didn't have power, so his service was bad in the house.

'This is what he had to deal with,' she wrote.

'Even after telling these men he lives here, they were not satisfied with his answer and continued to harass him.'

'This was not a one-minute altercation,' the worried mother continued. 'My son was followed for over 10 minutes dealing with this.'

She went on to say she is 'so happy that he recorded every moment' and is 'thankful my child is still here.

'I do not want to live in a community that does not welcome me and my children because of the color of our skin,' Portela wrote.

'I am posting this because people need to see that racism still exists... This is racial profiling and harassment at its finest.

'Many people have lost their lives behind ignorant idiots like this.'

She also wrote on TikTok that the neighbors are now trying to spin the narrative 'by saying he approached some woman and tried to enter her garage... none of this is true.

'He spoke to a woman in passing. He was on the sidewalk!' she argued.

'When he returned from walking around the block, her husband was standing outside waiting on him to return. That is when my son decided to pull out his phone because he felt unsafe at how many people were outside questioning him on who he was and why he was there!'

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office told the Herald-Tribune it was aware of the video and said 'detectives have been assigned and are actively locating and interviewing witnesses.'

'The sheriff's office takes these matters seriously and will fully investigate any allegations of criminal activity,' it said.

Leaders of the Sarasota branch of the NAACP are also working with the family and deputies to identify the men and get justice for the teen.

'When the video came across my desk, it was very disturbing,' President Trevor Harvey said.

'It's disturbing that this year we continue to battle these types of issues with young men of color. It's sad that we can't even walk in our neighborhood and not be harassed by someone who doesn't look like us because they think we don't belong.

'It is a clear representation of what's happening in our country. It speaks to the climate we are in,' he continued. 'It's disheartening that we are still dealing with these types of issues.'

Harvey added that he was 'immediately concerned' when he saw the video 'because it made me think of Ahmaud Arbery, and we don't want a tragedy like this in our community.

'These men need to be held accountable,' he concluded.