White man accused of punching, telling Muslim delivery driver to 'go back to your country' says he has proof none of it happened

Mike Anderson — who owns a $4.5 million home off Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota — told WCCO-TV the fallout after what went down in his driveway Oct. 27 was "the last kind of thing I could ever imagine that would happen to me in my life."

Image source: WCCO-TV video screenshot

What's the background?

Anderson told the station he ordered Sunday morning coffee and pastries through DoorDash, and about 30 minutes later his wife got a call from the delivery driver — Haarun Galbayte — telling her to come out and get her order.

But she refused since she specifically noted on the ticket the items were to be delivered to her door, WCCO said.

Anderson then went outside and found the food on the driveway, the station reported.

Image source: WCCO-TV video screenshot

"I yelled, 'Hey!' real loud to get his attention, and he stopped his car right away," Anderson told WCCO, adding that it was the second time within a week that Galbayte delivered food to their home and refused to bring it to the door.

"I swore at the guy," Anderson admitted to the station. "I said … 'It's called DoorDash, OK? It's not that complicated!' And he immediately just spit in my face from point-blank range."

Anderson also told WCCO he never uttered any slurs at Galbayte — a Muslim — and never touched him: "I never said anything about referencing his ethnicity, his country of origin, his race, his religion."

But that's not Galbayte's contention.

In a news conference earlier this month, Jaylani Hussein — executive director of Minnesota's Council on American-Islamic Relations — stood with Galbayte and said he was punched in the head three times and told to "go back to your country," WCCO-TV reported in an earlier story.

Image source: WCCO-TV video screenshot

Galbayte called 911, the station said, and Anderson was arrested and booked on fifth-degree assault charges.

Anderson says he has contradictory proof

But Anderson told WCCO that he and his attorney Joe Tamburino are fighting the charges — and that he passed a polygraph test proving he's innocent and has home security footage that shows what led up to the incident, although it isn't being released just yet.

Image source: WCCO-TV video screenshot

No hate crime charges have been filed, WCCO said.

The station reported that it reached out to Galbayte who said he's standing by his original claims and that he never spit on Anderson.

"I told him, you know, when he said, 'Go back to your home,' and I said, 'I came from Eden Prairie, I live there,' and then he said, 'Eden Prairie is not your home. Go back to where you came from,'" Galbayte said, according to the earlier WCCO story.

Galbayte added to the station that he was upset the same language President Donald Trump used about Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and three other congresswomen of color was used on him.