He grabbed the camera, smashed it on the ground and told Boddie, “Not here you’re not,” according to the report. But Rickels told officers he mistook the camera for a gun, and thought Boddie was pointing it at him. Rickels jumped out of the vehicle and confronted him, asking Boddie, “What are you doing?” according to the police report.īoddie told Rickels he was there for a photo shoot and showed his camera to prove what he was saying. Police said Boddie, Lee and a makeup artist named Alexis Brown were the only members of the entourage still on scene when Rickels arrived.īut neighbors who called 911 said there were eight to 10 people fighting in the street when they reported the incident.īoddie, 32, told police he was in his car readying to leave when the fire chief pulled up in an SUV, blocking him in. Most of the crew had already departed by the time Jason Rickels showed up 10 minutes later. She told officers that the camera crew had already set up lighting equipment so it took them some time to pack up their belongings. Lee said she got the call from the homeowners’ real estate agent letting her know the family wanted them out of the house as her team was setting up for the showcase. Police verified that Lee did have an hour-long showing scheduled that afternoon. Melody Rickels then called her husband and told him the real estate agent in their house was a scammer trying to burglarize them. She texted her agent and demanded that she call Lee and tell them to leave. But Melody Rickels became suspicious that the viewing was a “scam” and the crew was actually there to rob her home. They proved to be bags of camera equipment, according to police. She watched the activity on her smart phone through the home’s Ring security cameras and grew concerned when she saw eight to 10 people carrying bags of equipment into the house. Rickels’ wife, Melody, told police her real estate agent let her know Lee was coming to host a viewing and she left home to go to the grocery store. The team accompanied her to the Rickels residence. She hired a makeup artist, a photographer named Dwayne Boddie and about five other people to help with the shoot. According to an arrest report, Lee planned to do a photo shoot for her marketing portfolio as she gave tours of the home. The volatile confrontation broke out March 12 in front of Rickels’ residence in the Atlanta suburb. “But yet he still reached and grabbed this so called gun (camera) while the photographer was already in his vehicle and smashed his camera.” Real estate agent Regina Yvonne Lee. “All I seen was HATE in his eyes, he even lied to the police in front of me by saying he thought my photographers camera was a gun,” Lee said. She said Rickels cussed her out, called her a scammer and pointed a gun at her, despite the fact she had permission to be on the property to do the showing. “Unfortunately it’s sad that even while I’m working hard to provide for my family as a single mom, I have to encounter hatred and racism because of the color of my skin,” Lee said in a statement on Instagram. But the Atlanta real-estate agent said she thinks Rickels was only threatened by her team because they were Black. Rickels told police he thought Lee and her entourage were burglars attempting to rob his home. He has done nothing wrong.” Jason Edward Rickels (inset) was arrested outside his Roswell, Georgia, home March 12 after he allegedly pulled a gun on a Black real estate agent and photographer. “The bottom line is we are going to fight this case ethically, lawfully and zealously until the end and Chief Rickels will be exonerated. “This is a baseless charge,” his attorney, Brian Steel, told The Birmingham News. He spent a night in jail before being released on bail. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and second-degree criminal damage to property.
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Rickels, 43, is the fire chief in Tarrant, Alabama. But when Regina Lee, a 33-year-old real estate agent, scheduled a showing at his home, Rickels showed up with a gun and damaged the camera of one of the photographers she hired. The four-bedroom luxury farmhouse is listed at $925,000 on Zillow. Jason Edward Rickels’ home in Roswell, Georgia, is up for sale. An Alabama fire chief is in hot water after he pulled a gun on a Black real estate and contractors who were at his home for a real estate showing.