Family terrified after London, Ont., police take 3 hours to respond to racial threats

A London, Ont. mother is unable to sleep at night after her family was allegedly threatened because of their race in an attack she says police took too long to respond to. 

Stella Oreym, 26, was with her two young children in front of her mother's house in north-east London on Sunday morning when she says an SUV pulled up. 

Oyerm, who is Black, said the male driver started "doing doughnuts" around them and when she asked him to stop, he and the male passenger started yelling out the window.

"It was so scary," Oreym said. She described hearing phrases such as  "go back to your country" and "go back to Africa."

Listening to what was taking place outside, Oreym said her mother and a passerby rushed to help. That's when Oreym said the two men came out of the vehicle carrying a bat and a knife. 

"My daughter was so scared. I took [my kids'] hands and started running," Oreym said. "I was so scared for my kids, my mom, and the witness ... [They] stood in front of [the men] so we could get away."

In a statement, London police confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into what happened. They said Tuesday that no arrests or charges had been laid and that further information would only be shared where appropriate. 

The frightening encounter Oreym said she experienced took place two weeks after a 20-year-old man, who police said was motivated by hate, killed four members of a Muslim family in London.

The memory and hurt of that is what one witness says drove them to action.  

"When I saw this, my immediate reaction was 'I'm not going to stand for something like that, especially if it's in my vicinity,'" said the witness. CBC News has agreed not to name the individual who is fearful of repercussions from the men. 

"The safety of the family was going through my head," the witness added, noting the neighbourhood near Kipps Lane is multicultural and others are now fearful.  

911 response time

In addition to the violence that took place on Sunday, Oreym is also distressed about the response time after she placed a 911 call. Both she and a witness said it took three hours for an officer to attend the scene.

"I was very angry. It's like they didn't care about us," she said. "I feel if it were the other way around — if it was a Black person doing that to a white family — they would've rushed like there was no tomorrow."

"When they came, they said they were sorry that they were responding to overdoses ... That didn't make sense, like they'd rather deal with that than my family? We could've been dead by then," Oreym said.

Oreym said she's given police a photo of the vehicle the two men were in that shows the plate numbers.

Police have yet to respond to a request for comment on their response time.