(José Niño, Headline USA) What began as a confrontation at a Rochester, Minnesota park has turned into a nationwide debate over race and online fundraising.
In late April 2025, a Minnesota mother, Shiloh Hendrix, was recorded at Soldiers Field Memorial Park in Rochester, Minnesota, where she berated a 5-year-old black child for allegedly taking items from her 18-month-old son’s diaper bag.
In the video, she can be seen holding her own child on her hip.
“I called the kid out for what he was,” Hendrix stated on her subsequent fundraiser page. She called the child a “n****” according to the video.
Woman who called 5 year old boy the N-Word surpasses $600,000 in donations to help her deal with the backlash.
Shiloh Hendrix has raised over $623,000 on GiveSendGo, and is asking for $1 million to help her “relocate.”
According to the fundraiser, Hendrix remains defiant for… pic.twitter.com/JunYXS1Bac
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 4, 2025
Per NBC News, Sharmake Beyle Omar, who is of Somali origin, filmed the entire incident. After Hendrix berated the 5-year-old, Omar started filming and told her that her language constituted “hate speech.”
In the United States, there are no laws that ban speech that are offensive to people based on race or ethnicity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
In response to Omar’s hectoring, Hendrix said she didn’t “care at all.”
Omar warned her, “We’ll see about that, what the internet has to say about you,” adding, “I have never witnessed anyone being racist to a child on the autism spectrum. Today, that is her.”
As detailed by NBC News, Omar mentioned that the child in question has autism spectrum disorder. He claimed to be acquainted with the child’s parents, who are originally from Somalia, and asserted that they were present at the park supervising their three other children at the time of the incident.
Following the video’s viral dissemination, Hendrix established a GiveSendGo fundraiser titled “Help Me Protect My Family.” Originally setting a goal of $1,000,000, she has raised over $600,000 as of the time of this writing.
In her fundraiser description, Hendrix claims she has been “put into a very dire situation” following the incident. She alleges her personal information has been compromised: “My SSN has been leaked. My address, and phone number have been given out freely. My family members are being attacked. My eldest child may not be going back to school. Even where I exercise has been exposed.”
On Friday, Hendrix updated her campaign, writing: “We are currently doing okay. No one has been harmed, and we are getting by. We are taking the proper procedures in order to stay safe from these constant threats. I’m still very frightened, and I don’t think I will feel safe until we can escape completely.”
The fundraiser has attracted supporters from the political Right. One donor, CEO of RiftTV Elijah Schaffer, who contributed $650, wrote: “We are all tired and recognize that instead of altering their conduct, minorities prefer to regulate our language.”
I thought you'd all like to know that Shiloh Hendrix's fundraiser just overtook the fundraiser of killer Karmelo Anthony. pic.twitter.com/GCm1dUTxiH
— Way of the World (@wayotworld) May 3, 2025
In response to Hendrix’s fundraising success, the Rochester Branch of the NAACP launched a GoFundMe campaign titled “Help Us Seek Justice for a 5-Year-Old Facing Racial Hate.”
“Let us be clear: this was not a misunderstanding or a moment of poor judgment-this was a deliberate, racist, and threatening attack on a young black child,” the NAACP stated on their fundraiser page.
As of the time of this writing, the NAACP’s fundraiser had raised over $340,000. The NAACP fundraiser emphasizes that public parks should be “safe, welcoming places for all children and families-not sites of hate and trauma.”
Walé Elegbede, president of the Rochester Branch of the NAACP, described the video as “deeply disturbing” and told the Minnesota Star Tribune the fundraising for Hendrix was “unacceptable.”
The Rochester Police Department has acknowledged awareness of the video and stated they are “collecting information and actively investigating the situation.”
This incident has caused online sleuths to investigate the backgrounds of Hendrix and Omar, respectively.
According to KAALTV, Omar was previously charged alongside Mohamed Hussein Omer in a 2022 case involving the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old runaway.
However, court records show the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against both Omar and Omer in March 2025 “in the interest of justice.”
With respect to Hendrix, she has a history of being convicted for disorderly conduct in 2012 and driving under the influence (DUI) in 2014. She also has a history of eviction in 2015.
The cases can be found below:
Minnesota Court Records Hendrix DUI
Minnesota Court Records Brawling
Minnesota Court Records Eviction
The Hendrix fundraiser has parallels to another controversial GiveSendGo campaign for Karmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old Texas student charged with murder after the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf at a track meet, as Headline USA previously reported. Anthony’s fundraiser has raised over $522,000 as of this writing.
As investigations continue and fundraising totals grow, the case highlights ongoing tensions surrounding free speech, and the role of online platforms in amplifying and monetizing controversial incidents.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
