Black dog owner defends ‘Central Park Karen,’ says black birdwatcher threatened him as well

Amy Cooper, the white woman who went viral last year as "Central Park Karen" for calling 911 after an interaction with a black birdwatcher, has filed suit against her former employer for wrongful termination. Contained in the suit is an email from black dog owner Jerome Lockett, whose message with NBC News details a similar interaction between himself and Christian Cooper in which the birdwatch allegedly threatened him for having his dog off leash.

According to Lockett, "Well, a few days later we're in there and Christian ... comes yelling from about 10 yards away 'YOU NEED TO LEASH YOUR DOG!!! THEY CAN’T BE OFF-LEASH IN HERE.' We both take a few steps back and my friend ask him if he works for the park and he says no. So we say 'sounds good, have a good one.' And when we turn our back he starts to try and make these noises to call our dogs to him." This is similar to how Amy Cooper said their interaction started.

"I yelled, 'don’t try and call my dog to you!' He then says, 'if you're gonna do what you want, them [sic] I'm not gonna do what I want, but you're not gonna like it,'" Lockett wrote. This is also important to the lawsuit because this is the same "threatening" language Christian Cooper admitted to levelling towards Amy Cooper before he started recording her reaction.

Commenting on Amy Cooper's situation, Lockett said, "You can read his Facebook post where he tells the world he told her 'you're not gonna like what I'm going to do next.' That's a threat. And she has no idea if this man is pulling out a knife, a gun, or a treat that laced with a rat poison. If I wasn't who I was, I would of [sic] called the police on that guy too."

Amy Cooper is suing her former employer Franklin Templeton, an investment firm, for what she says is race-based and sex-based discrimination in her dismissal. Amy Cooper claims Franklin Templeton conducted a half-hearted investigation into the incident and played it up to the press, causing Amy Cooper emotional distress and harm. Amy Cooper says Franklin Templeton made her personal cell phone number easily accessible to the public which resulted in "threats and harassment based on race and gender," according to the law suit.

The law suit concluded, "As a result of [Franklin Templeton's] negligence, [Amy Cooper] has suffered severe emotional distress and will continue to do so in the future. Accordingly, the [Franklin Templeton employers] are liable to [Amy Cooper] in an amount to be determined at trial."

Jerome Lockett nor Christian Cooper responded immediately to a request for comment. Christian Cooper seems to be parleying his new found fame and is hosting events for "Black Bird Watcher's Week" in North Carolina in June.