Andover Woman Describes Encounter With Fire Lieutenant

ANDOVER, MA — Andover woman Gabby Batista, 19, said she's experienced racist microaggressions in Andover all her life, but nothing like what happened to her Wednesday. Batista, who is ethnically Dominican, was followed by a man who said he "wanted to make sure someone wasn't stealing something" — when she was checking her own mail.

"If it was a white female — what he would expect in Andover — no questions would've been asked," Batista said. "For him to say that, at my own home, it's just absurd."

Batista posted a video of part of the encounter on Twitter, and the man has since been identified by the town as an Andover Fire Rescue lieutenant. The town said Thursday that he has been placed on paid administrative leave.

"A lot of people in Andover live in a bubble and they don't believe that things like this happen," Batista said. "It's good for them to know that this actually is real and people act this way."

Batista said she was hanging out with a friend Wednesday and had been waiting for something to arrive in the mail. She asked her friend to stop by her house so she could check before they got food.

Her friend pulled up at the edge of the driveway, and while Batista was checking her mail, a man in a SUV stopped behind her, Batista said. When she adjusted how she was parked to allow the man to pass, he pulled up alongside her, and watched Batista checking her mail.

When Batista returned to the car and they drove off, the lieutenant followed them, until Batista asked her friend to pull over; they thought he might have been a police officer.

"We got out of the car, and we asked, can we help you?" Batista said. "He said, you just stole mail from that house. I have everything. I took pictures."

"No, I live there," Batista answered.

She offered to show ID to prove it, she said, but the man insisted on going to the house to verify. Once back outside her house, Batista took a video of the lieutenant, which she would go on to tweet.

In the video, she said, "This is literally none of your business,"

"I'll go right to the door," the lieutenant responded. "I wanted to make sure someone wasn't stealing something."

"This is literally my sister's house," Batista's sister says from off-camera.

I’m the midst of everything going on look at this I live in Andover,ma and this racist white man decided to approach me for doing nothing but getting my mail at MY HOME.... he followed me and my friends car recording us and questioned if I lived there. This world is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/ihHkry8CiQ

After she stopped recording, Batista had to ask the lieutenant to leave repeatedly, she said.

"I was nervous. That's super sketchy to me," Batista said. "Especially if I've never seen you before. He was in a big car. He was a pretty big man. It was just weird."

Town officials contacted Batista, she said, and are investigating the incident. She was disappointed to learn the man worked for the town's fire department.

"People that work for the government, for the town, are supposed to make you feel comfortable and embrace everybody," she said.

Town officials did not identify the lieutenant and instead released a statement, Thursday.

"This is an extremely concerning situation, one that demands a full accounting of the facts," Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said.

The town hired an independent investigator to review the encounter, according to the statement.

"Under the terms of the Fire Rescue collective bargaining agreement, the lieutenant is out of work, on indefinite paid administrative leave," the statement said. "His name is not being released at this time, on advice of labor counsel."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.