CNN contacted Pilon and a lawyer representing him for comment. He has not yet been charged and is not in custody, special agent Mara R. Snyder of the Detroit FBI told CNN. On June 14, 2020, Pilon reportedly called nine different Starbucks stores in Saginaw, Bay City, Birch Run, Flint, Ann Arbor, Allen Park and Oak Park. He told officers answering the phone to tell officers wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts that “the only good one is dead,” court documents say. In one of those phone calls, Pillon told an employee, “I’ll go out and lynch a ***,” the court document said. A few days before the incident, Starbucks reversed its position by banning employees from wearing tools, such as T-shirts or pins, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and announced that it was giving 250,000 T-shirts to employees. Pilon “made these communications with the intention of transmitting a threat and knowing that the communications would be considered a threat,” authorities said in an affidavit. According to the affidavit, later that week, Pilon went to a Goodwill store and left a noose along with a note that read: “An accessory to wear with your BLM T-shirt.” Authorities said at least four other loops and notes were found at several locations, including a Walmart car park, a drink fridge at a 7-Eleven store, a Kroger car park and a private car. In the United States, the noose of the executioner has come to symbolize the barbarity and history of the country of lynching and hatred of blacks. In recent years, loops have been found hanging outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC on campus and on a fence at an elementary school in Oakland, California.
The threat “brought hatred” to our home, the family says
Donald Simon found one of the loops on the morning of July 12, 2020, when he got into his truck outside his home in Saginaw. He planned to drive to a nearby gas station and get coffee there, but he did not succeed. When he opened the truck door, Simon’s ex-wife, Regina, told CNN he spotted the noose and a note in the vehicle and returned home. “She brought us to our knees, I think we got a little numb and went on autopilot,” said Regina Simon, adding that her husband eventually felt so angry. “Our truck is not even 10 feet from my front door. That bothered me – you came to my property and brought hatred to a house that does not hate,” he said. Regina Simon, who is Mexican and white, and her ex-husband, who is black, said they believe they were targeted because the family was playing in the front yard with their dog the day before the incident. Regina Simon was wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, they said. In the days that followed, Regina Simon said she posted a photo of the noose on Facebook, spoke to NAACP, decorated her yard with Black Lives Matter signals and balloons, and staged a protest because the family wanted to show that they were not afraid. or intimidated. “We walked into our neighborhood to let people know that our neighborhood will not stay for that,” he said. Regina Simon said the family did not know Pilon and had never had contact with him. They hope that if Pilon is found guilty, a judge will order Pilon to undergo mental health treatment. “Anyone living a life full of hatred like this must be living a miserable life,” she told Pilon. CNN’s Amy Simonson contributed to this report.
