Wife of Alabama councilman, 76, who hurled N-word at council meeting fears someone is going to kill her husband and he has been wearing a bulletproof vest to leave the house
- Tommy Bryant, 76, has refused to apologize after he was filmed saying the N-word during a Tarrant City Council meeting in Alabama on Monday night
- Video from the meeting showed Bryant standing up and saying: 'Do we have a house n****r in here?'
- Bryant claims he was repeating what he heard the city's black mayor, Wayman Newton, say about fellow black council member Veronica Freeman
- Newton - a black Republican - has denied ever using the slur against Freeman
- His wife, Nancy Mahler Bryant, says she is frightened someone will shoot Bryant
- She said her husband is wearing a bulletproof vest when he leaves the house and that he has given her a gun in case someone tries to break into their home
- Bryant's wife said they had received more than 400 threatening calls at their home since the video emerged
The wife of an Alabama councilman who was caught on camera saying the N-word during a council meeting says she is now frightened someone is going to kill him and that he has been wearing a bulletproof vest.
Tommy Bryant, 76, has refused to apologize after he was filmed saying the N-word during a Tarrant City Council meeting on Monday night.
Video from the meeting showed Bryant standing up and saying: 'Do we have a house n****r in here?'. It appears he was referring to black female council member, Veronica Freeman.
Bryant insists his words were taken out of context and claims he was repeating what he heard the city's black mayor, Wayman Newton, say about Freeman at an earlier meeting.
His wife, Nancy Mahler Bryant, told TMZ that she fears they will be retaliated against.
Tommy Bryant, 76, has refused to apologize after he was filmed saying the N-word during a Tarrant City Council meeting on Monday night
His wife, Nancy Mahler Bryant, said she now fears they will be retaliated against. She said her husband is wearing a bulletproof vest when he leaves the house and that he has given her a gun in case someone tries to break into their home
She said her husband is wearing a bulletproof vest when he leaves the house and that he has given her a gun in case someone tries to break into their home.
Nancy said she and her 92-year-old mother, who lives with him, are not leaving the house and that they are keeping the blinds shut all day.
She said she is afraid that someone might try and shoot if they spot her husband inside the house.
Bryant's wife said they had received more than 400 threatening calls at their home since the video emerged.
Nancy said the callers, who are from right across the country, have called them racist and made threats against them.
Despite the threats, Bryant told local news outlets on Wednesday that he would not apologize for the comments he made during the council meeting.
He claimed he only repeated the same sentence that was made by Mayor Newton about fellow council member Freeman.
Bryant also claimed that he and Freeman were allies and that they had been working together in recent months to block proposals that Mayor Newton has initiated.
Video from the meeting showed Bryant standing up and saying: 'Do we have a house n****r in here?'. It appears he was referring to black female council member, Veronica Freeman (left). Bryant claims he was repeating what he heard the city's black mayor, Wayman Newton, (right) say about Freeman at an earlier meeting
Alabama's Democratic Party has called upon Bryant to resign. Alabama's GOP has released a statement saying the remark is 'completely unacceptable'. The council members are pictured above during Monday's meeting
'I did what needed to be done. It needed to be brought to light what kind of a person the mayor is,' Bryant told WVTM-TV.
Newton - a black Republican - has denied ever using the slur against Freeman.
'They are trying to expose me for saying something I did not say,' Newton told AL.com. 'All of that was a political stunt that they did not do very well.
'Veronica and Tommy, they've basically been working against me since I got in office.
'I never used that phrase to speak about her. Ask them to produce the video. They record everything. They should have their own recording. They want me out. He [Bryant] wants to run for mayor.'
Freeman has not commented on Bryant repeating the racial slur during the council meeting.
However, Alabama's Democratic Party have called upon Bryant to resign.
Alabama's GOP has released a statement saying the remark is 'completely unacceptable.'
Bryant says he is refusing to budge and insists he is not racist.
'What a lot of the public's definition is, I might be a racist. But according to what the true definition of a racist is, absolutely not,' he said.
Tarrant, which adjoins the city of Birmingham, has a population of about 6,100 and is about 53 percent black, census statistics show.
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