ROCHESTER — The Rochester City Attorney’s Office said it is filing a misdemeanor complaint summons in the case involving Shiloh Hendrix, the woman caught on video using a racial slur at a Rochester park. The draft complaint is still subject to review and approval by a district court judge before it is formally filed.
The draft complaint charges Hendrix with three counts of disorderly conduct. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
The video, which was originally posted on TikTok on April 28, 2025,
shows a man confronting the woman for calling a Black child a racial slur at Roy Sutherland Playground
at Soldiers Field Park. The man challenges her to repeat it. The woman repeats the slur four times and makes an obscene gesture to the camera as she walks away.
Though the original video was deleted, social media influencers reposted the video with their own commentary. One user’s
repost on TikTok has since garnered more than 15 million
views and 1.3 million engagements.
In the announcement of the filing, the Rochester City Attorney’s Office acknowledged the four-month gap between the incident and the charging decision.
“Given the sensitive and complicated nature of this case, along with the high level of public attention, completing the necessary reviews and conversations with the victim’s family took longer than usual,” the announcement said. “(T)he City recognizes not only the significant attention and emotion surrounding this case, but also the complex and lasting impacts situations like this have on communities of color and our broader community.”
Mayor Kim Norton also released a statement in response to the filing.
“This was a situation that deeply affected many people, especially our communities of color, and caused real turmoil in our community,” Norton’s statement said.
The Rochester branch of NAACP hosted a community forum in response to the incident May 7 and launched a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to support the family of the child targeted by Hendrix in the video. That campaign raised more than $340,000. However,
multiple families falsely claimed to be the family of the boy
targeted in the video. NAACP members said they have identified the correct family and had put the money in a trust.
A fundraising platform collected more than $800,000 in donations for Hendrix in an ongoing campaign with a $1 million goal.
