BRYAN, Texas — A year after Bryan Police responded to a neighborhood on Pepper Tree near Martin Luther King Street regarding residents allegedly throwing fireworks at driving cars, police said it'll up its patrol to make sure everyone is safe this Fourth of July.
In 2021, Bryan Police released bodycam footage of the alleged incident, which showed fireworks popping in the middle of the street and some being thrown at civilians. Kole Taylor, the Public Information Officer of Bryan Police, said people reported seeing others shooting fireworks at cars as they drove down the street.
According to Bryan Police Facebook, police did manage to make arrests that day, but have chosen to not reveal the identity of the suspects due to legal reasoning.
Tre Watson, a community activist in Blacks Lives Matter of Bryan-College Station, believes the area was targeted because it has a large population of African American residents.
His organization sent a letter to BPD where he alleges the incident was "instigated by white men in trucks driving up and around the area shouting racial slurs and profanities, disturbing the peace. Yet, the police focused their attention on the Black community members and not the provocateurs."
Bryan Police did not provide any response regarding his letter below.
"They haven't done anything, I haven't heard from them about this incident since we initially talked about it. I do agree, everyone should understand it's illegal to pop fireworks inside of Bryan/College Station, but I don't believe certain areas should be targeted when this happens all over Bryan/College station in every neighborhood," said Watson.
Even so, Watson said he's been in communication with Bryan Police to find a solution to the situation last year.
Officer Taylor said they have been working to ease tensions following the incident to maintain their community relationships with local organizations.
"We've got a great working relationship with multiple outlets in this community, we've sat down with a lot of community leaders and groups and actually explained what happened and show them a video of how things escalated at that point," Taylor said.
Taylor said they are preparing several police units to patrol the area to prevent another potential incident this year. Taylor said they even brought in patrol units that don't typically work during holidays to assist.
"We do have a large police presence over the Fourth of July weekend, which is historically one of our busiest times of the year," Taylor said.
Taylor said Bryan Police get over 100 calls a year of fireworks being shot off in the city. Taylor said their main goal is to make sure everyone is safe.
Taylor just had one request for all residents as the Fourth of July celebrations begin: "We'd ask that hopefully, that doesn't happen this year and hopefully people kind of abide by the legality of fireworks and the burn ban and we don't have any of those situations this year."