Stanley P. Brozana Jr., 72 – Served 37 Years as Orwigsburg Police Chief
A Schuylkill County man is facing multiple felony charges following an alleged incident in which he threatened an Amazon delivery driver with a knife and then hurled racial epithets at her.
According to court papers, Troopers from State Police-Schuylkill Haven were dispatched to an area along Molleystown Rd. in Tremont Township on Wednesday to speak with a female Amazon delivery driver.
At about 3 p.m. Wednesday, the driver said she was supposed to deliver packages to a home on Zimmerman Lane, a private road accessible from Molleystown Rd., in Tremont Township. Zimmerman Lane, she said, had two separate driveways.
When the driver got to the top of the one driveway, she told police that she realized it was the wrong home and began to turn around, back down the driveway. As she was headed down, a blue-gray tractor-trailer was coming up the driveway. There was not enough room for both vehicles to pass in opposite directions, so the Amazon driver said she retreated back up the driveway to make room.
As she did that, the delivery driver said the tractor-trailer accelerated toward her vehicle at a high rate of speed. She told police that if she didn’t move her vehicle, the truck would have smashed into her delivery vehicle. So, she pulled off into an area just off the driveway and threw her hands in the air to indicate she wasn’t a threat.
At that point, the delivery driver told police that the driver of the tractor-trailer, identified as 58-year-old Kevin Zimmerman, got out of the truck while holding a black object in his hand.
Zimmerman, she said, began to approach the delivery vehicle yelling, “Don’t wave your n***** hands at me!” and “Get off my land or I’ll kill you, n*****!”
The driver said Zimmerman then unsheathed a large knife – which police say is an 8-inch Gerber fixed serrated knife – and reached through the window of the delivery vehicle and grabbed the driver by her face and shoved her head backwards. She told police that Zimmerman was in such a heightened state of aggression that she was unable to say that she was just an Amazon delivery person who went to the wrong address.
Zimmerman eventually did remove his hand from her face and the driver said she was able to leave the property. She said she drove to a nearby gas station and phoned 9-1-1.
Troopers then went to the scene of the alleged incident and waited around for Zimmerman to return home, eventually coming up the driveway at about 4:20 p.m.
Zimmerman reportedly told police that he has had problems with people stealing from his property in the past so when he saw the white delivery van coming down his driveway, he drove toward it so he could confront the driver.
Police say that Zimmerman then went on a racially-charged rant, saying that he saw the van’s driver to be a “n*****” and that “I f***ing hate n*****s” because of a previous incident involving his wife.
Zimmerman then “began to display an extreme racial prejudice/bias toward African-Americans,” police say, when he allegedly called the victim in this incident a “G** da** ghetto rat” and used other racial slurs in describing her. Police say Zimmerman was “becoming increasing(ly) irritated while speaking about African-Americans in general.”
Zimmerman then reportedly confirmed what the Amazon driver said about the confrontation in his driveway and police say he “began to rant further about his hatred toward African-Americans.”
Police placed Zimmerman into custody and took him before District Magistrate Judge David Plachko on Wednesday evening. During the arraignment, police say that Zimmerman wanted to tell his side of the story.
“Almost immediately into explaining his side of this incident to Judge Plachko, Zimmerman expressed an extreme bias and hatred toward African-Americans by stating, ‘I hate n*****s.”
When he said that, Plachko ended the arraignment. Police then withdrew initial charges and then filed additional charges against Zimmerman before District Magistrate Judge David Rossi. Zimmerman was remanded to Schuylkill County Prison on $75,000 cash bail. Zimmerman has since posted bail and been released.
Zimmerman is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and ethnic intimidation, both second-degree felonies; reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint, terroristic threats and simple assault, all misdemeanors; and a summary offense of harassment.
A preliminary hearing is currently scheduled before District Magistrate Judge David Rossi on April 17.
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