"I may have used the 'N' word while trying to protect myself from the immediate threat," writes Wilton Manors Commissioner Ted Galatis, after he and his wife were involved in a road-rage incident near his home Sunday night.
"I apologize for my use of the 'N' word," he goes on to say. "It is something I never say. I offer no excuse, other than it was uttered when I was being threatened in front of my own home."
According to a police report released on Thursday, Galatis and his wife were leaving the Publix on Oakland Park Boulevard when they were followed by another car that began honking at them. Galatis told cops that he got out to confront the occupants in the car, who were all black.
The occupants in the car said that Galatis, 52, began using the racial slur in a fit of rage.
"[Driver] stated that T Galatis began calling her and her passengers 'N_____' and at that point she requested for police to respond," the police report reads. "[Driver] stated that she was upset that T Galatis called her and the passengers of her vehicle 'N____' and did not want him to get away with it."
According to Galatis' version of the incident, he admits to using the racial slur, but not before a young black man got out of the other car and asked him, "What's your problem, white boy?"
Galatis' wife, Donna, told NBCMiami that the verbal attacks continued from the other occupants in the car.
"What they said to me -- white bitch, I'll slice you up," she claims.
According to the driver of the other car, Lotoya Marie Pinkney, the incident began with a misunderstanding. Pinkey told police that another car had been honking at Galatis before turning off into another street.
Galatis got of his car in a rage, Pinkney says, and began yelling at them. That's when they began yelling back before Galatis dropped the N-bomb.
"I'm going to have you arrested," Pinkney said, per the Sun Sentinel. "I know who you are."
Of course, using racial slurs is not a crime. No arrests were made or charges filed.
Meanwhile, the Dolphin Democrats, an LGBT advocacy group located in Wilton Manors, has called for Galatis' resignation, calling his outburst "unacceptable."
Galatis, a Republican, is running for reelection in November.
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