Man Slaps Crying Toddler and Calls Him Racist Epithet on Delta Flight only to Lose His Job

Jessica Bennett and her husband aren’t certain whether to sue. On February the white couple were comforting their adopted black baby on a Delta air flight when a drunken man on the plane complained of the two-year-old’s crying and told her to “shut that nigger baby up,” and then reached back and slapped the child, leaving a scratch under his eye. Assaulting someone under 16 carries up to a one year prison sentence.

“I could not believe that he would say something like that, and to a baby or about a baby. And then he hit him was just, I felt like I was in another world. I was shaking,” Bennett told CNN affiliate KARE.

The man was Joe Rickey Hundley, 60, of Hayden, Idaho, who at the time was president of AGC’s Unitech Composites and Structures Unit. He has since lost his job.

“Reports of the recent behavior of one of our business unit executives while on personal travel are offensive and disturbing,” said a statement from AGC Aerospace & Defense. “We have taken this matter very seriously and worked diligently to examine it since learning of the matter on Friday afternoon.

“As of Sunday, the executive is no longer employed with the company.”

Hundley’s attorney, Marcia Shein claims that he is not racist. “This has escalated into a racist issue and I want to be clear he is not a racist.” Nevertheless, he could face up to a year in prison for assaulting a minor.