The white woman in a video that showed her preventing a black man from entering the luxury apartment block where he lived stood by her actions, saying in a new interview: "I do not think that I did anything wrong."
Hilary Thornton was speaking to Fox 2 in response to the viral footage recorded by D'Arreion Toles on Friday night, which showed Thornton standing in the man's way and then following him up to his apartment as he returned home from work.
When Toles, 24, uploaded the video to Facebook on Saturday it quickly went viral. Thornton was subsequently fired from her job. Fox 2 said Thornton then reached out to the station to do an interview. In the interview, Thornton said that she was simply following the rules stated by the management association that runs the luxury building in St Louis.
"When I noticed an individual that I did not know here, my only thought was to follow directions I had been given by condo association board members repeatedly; and that is to never allow access to anyone that you don't know," she said.
"I simply asked if he lived there because the direction from the association is…that if you don't know the person, you don't let them in," she continued.
In the video, Thornton told Toles that she needed to see his key fob for "my building." Toles said that he would not show it to her because it was not her building.
"It's the only indicator any resident has that they live in the building and he wouldn't answer me," Thornton said. "He would not show me one."
Thornton pointed to the condo association's security guidelines, which state that a tenant should "never allow someone to enter when you enter or exit."
She declared that she was not racially profiling Toles, as many alleged (including her employer); she was only following the rules.
"I do not think I did anything wrong," she said. "I upheld the ask of me to its fullest extent."
Thornton described the allegations of racism as "false and heartbreaking," saying: "Those are words that cut deep."
Fox 2 spoke to another resident in the block who defended Thornton.
Earlier this week, Toles told KMOV that he was "blown away" and "shocked" by the incident, but said he refused to be angry with Thornton.
"I am not mad at her. I am not upset with her. I am not going to go after her legally or anything like that. I wish her the best," he said. "I would still have a conversation with her."
In a later interview with Real Stl News, Toles said: "We all know what the issue is, the issue doesn't even have to be stated. What needs to be the focus is the resolution."
Toles could not be reached for comment.
