Nikita Williams says she was trying to film her fellow community members during a protest Tuesday on Hertel Avenue when she says she was forced off a public sidewalk by the owner of MT Pockets and a Buffalo police officer.

"I had my hand on the start button, I went to ‘live’ because I was looking for the protesters,” Nikita Williams said.

Williams says that while she was trying to record the anti-racism march Tuesday night along Hertel Avenue, one of the owners of MT Pockets, Phil Algana, demanded she move off the sidewalk in front of the bar. That’s when Williams says a Buffalo police officer forced her to move.

“They kind of pushed me and told me I couldn’t stand there, he said, ‘you have to go across the street,’ he asked me if I was a patron of the bar and I said, ‘no’ and he says, ‘well then you can’t stand on the side of the street,’ ” Williams said.

Williams says she is no stranger to Hertel Avenue. She’s lived in North Buffalo for 20 years — but she never thought she would fear her own community.

“I definitely feared for my safety,” said Williams.

Williams says she owned a shop on Hertel Avenue but decided to shut it down in July because customers would come inside just to tell her she wasn’t welcome. 

“I was told by customers they thought it was too ethnic for the neighborhood. I was told they had nice stuff but they weren’t sure the neighborhood was ready for it,” said Williams.

Williams says there were multiple incidents that made her pack up shop, but the main reason was because she just couldn’t handle the racial slurs she experienced daily.

“I had people walking up and down the street yelling obscenities to me and my husband. ‘What are you doing here,’ ‘we don’t want you here,’ and using the N-word,” she said.

Williams says as things escalated Tuesday night she quickly pressed ‘record’ not only for herself, but for other people who have experienced racism. 

“If you are bold enough to say that to me, then say it in the camera for America to hear you,” said Williams.