Kansas man arrested for kicking & yelling racial slurs at a 1-year-old Black child in supermarket

A white man in Kansas was arrested after he kicked and yelled racial obscenities at a one-year-old black child for obscenities. Sadly, the situation has taken an unpleasant turn that has the child’s mother upset.

A quick Sunday morning store run turned ugly for an African-American woman when 31-year-old Riff Trace kicked her son in the back and knocked him to the floor.

Around 7:20 am, heavily pregnant Lashantai Whitaker went with her 11-year-old daughter and one-year-old Jhavii Fry to a Dillons supermarket to get some groceries.

She told KWCH:

"We were barely in the store, and [Trace] kicked him in his back. All I heard was a loud thud and my daughter screaming."

Whitaker said she was confused. Trace tried to run out of the store after kicking the boy, but a bystander and some of the store employees tackled him to the ground until the police arrived.

The shocked mom also said Trace went on a racist rant, yelling the “N-word” and saying he was a white supremacist.

“He sounded like a madman,” she recalled.

Whitaker also remembered her son screaming and said he’d never cried or screamed that loud before. She, however, said her son was okay and implied that had something to do with his thick coat. Still, emergency workers checked Jhavii for injuries.

Officers from the Wichita Police Department responded to an assault call at the store and arrested Trace for “battery that was bias and racially motivated.”

A statement from the department, quoted by The Wichita Eagle, partly stated:

“Through the investigation, it was learned (Riff) walked into the . . . store and kicked a 1-year-old victim in the back causing the child to fall on the floor while yelling obscenities and racial slurs. (Riff) was booked for battery that was bias and racially motivated, as well as resist arrest.”

As it turned out, Trace already had a long history of run-ins with the law as far back as when he was 15. His rap sheet includes burglary, possession of methamphetamine, driving under the influence, and domestic violence. He has also previously been in jail, prison, and a mental hospital in Kansas.

Whitaker was, therefore, distraught to learn that hours after his arrest, Trace was released from jail on a $3,500 bond.

“He could attack someone else’s kid . . . if he’s out and he’s everywhere,” she worried.