Video Appears to Contradict St. Louis Official’s Claims of Confrontation with Anti-Mask Crowd

St. Louis Gateway (E_bass / Flickr / CC)
E_bass / Flickr / CC
Joel B. Pollak

Surveillance footage has emerged that appears to contradict claims by Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of the St. Louis County Health Department, that he was jostled and targeted by racial slurs after a county meeting about local mask mandates last week.

Khan was jeered by the crowd during the meeting. Afterwards, he claims, he was surrounded by a group of hostile people, who jostled him and called him a “fat brown cunt” and a “brown bastard.”

In a letter to Council Chair Rita Heard Days last Wednesday, Khan claimed:

After my presentation was completed, I tried to leave the chamber but was confronted by several people who were in the aisle. On more than one occasion, I was shoulder-bumped and pushed. As I approached the exit and immediately outside the chambers, I became surrounded by the crowd in close quarters, where members of the crowd yelled at me, calling me a “fat brown cunt” and a “brown bastard.” After being physically assaulted, called racist slurs, and surrounded by an angry mob, I expressed my displeasure by using my middle finger toward an individual who had physically threatened me and called me racist slurs.

Khan’s claims were picked up by national media, in the midst of public debate over St. Louis’s decision to overturn a new mask mandate — much to the chagrin of national Democrats and journalists clamoring for COVID restrictions.

National Public Radio reported the incident, for example, with Khan repeating that he was targeted with racial slurs.

However, video of Khan leaving the meeting has emerged, in which he was not confronted by anyone, and in which he is seen giving the middle finger to a crowd that is ignoring him.

Local CBS affiliate KMOV4 reported that Khan admitted giving the finger to the crowd, but did not back down from his other allegations. A local reporter said he heard Khan being called other, non-racial names. KMOV reported:

A News 4 reporter who was on scene heard insults being thrown at Khan, such as “liar” and “snake.” News 4 does not have clear video of Dr. Khan leaving the council chambers, during which he said in a letter he was shoulder bumped and pushed. Video from the lobby shows the moments afterwards, but there is no audio. In a letter, Khan claims outside the chambers, he was surrounded by an angry mob in close quarters and was called explicit racial slurs.

“That’s when people started jeering and booing, and a couple individuals leaned into me, and menacingly whispered words I would not care to repeat,” he said.

Critics claim the surveillance video contradicts Khan’s account, saying most people were not even looking in his direction until he was almost out of view. A source tells News 4 that the officer escorting Khan out of the council chambers is willing to testify he did not hear the racial slurs that Khan indicated were said.

KMO4 also notes that “supporters [of Dr. Khan] say the video only shows one piece of what happened that night.”

Khan told NPR that he was taking the alleged abuse in stride: “I look to my idol, Dr. Tony Fauci, and what he and his family have had to put up with over the last 18 months. I mean, what happened to me pales in comparison to it.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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