Ole Miss Student's Family Dealership Ties Surface Amid Apology
Alaina Kunes, 18, apologized and withdrew from Ole Miss after a doorbell video caught her making racist gestures outside three Black students' apartment. Reporters have since traced her family to Kunes Auto Group, a Midwest dealership chain already facing a discrimination lawsuit — though the company says she has no role there.
Case at a glance
- Alaina Kunes — subject
Next: There is no criminal case to track. The University of Mississippi's conduct investigation remains open in name, but Kunes's withdrawal and federal student-privacy law mean the school is unlikely to disclose any findings. The ACLU of Mississippi says it is still reviewing complaints about the incident. Separately, Makayla Starks's discrimination lawsuit against Kunes Auto Group over the racist sticker incident remains pending in Wisconsin, where attorney William Sulton says his office has fielded additional complaints against the company.
What the doorbell camera caught
On the evening of Friday, Nov. 6, a Ring doorbell camera outside an off-campus apartment in Oxford, Mississippi recorded three women walking past the front door at roughly 8:37 p.m. The apartment is shared by three Black University of Mississippi students, including the daughter of Tasha Bolton, who first brought the footage to a local news outlet.
Two of the three women beat their chests and made ape-like noises and gestures toward the door before bursting into laughter and walking away, according to the footage described by Action News 5 and the New York Post. The third woman glanced at the door and kept walking without stopping.
The video did not become public right away. It surfaced days later after Bolton contacted Action News 5, and within days the clip had spread widely enough that the University of Mississippi issued a public statement condemning the conduct.
Who's involved
Alaina Kunes, 18, a freshman at the University of Mississippi, has been identified as one of the two women seen making the gestures. In her statement, Kunes said she had never met the apartment's residents and was not aware of their race before the Nov. 6 encounter.
The second woman seen beating her chest and making noises alongside Kunes has not been identified and has not commented publicly. The third woman in the video also has not been named.
Tasha Bolton, whose daughter is one of the three students living in the apartment, posted publicly about the video and said her family wanted answers. The university has said it leases the off-campus housing where the students live.
"Because discrimination is learned from parents and family. It's not something you're born with." — William Sulton, attorney
No criminal charge, a campus investigation instead
Nothing in the coverage describes Kunes being charged with a crime. Mississippi's hate-crime statute enhances penalties for an underlying offense committed because of a victim's race — it does not, standing alone, criminalize gestures or noises absent some other offense like assault, stalking or a true threat, none of which appears in the reporting.
What the university has pursued instead is a student conduct investigation. Shawnboda Mead, Ole Miss's vice chancellor for student affairs, sent a campus-wide email on Sunday, Nov. 8 describing the video as showing "University of Mississippi students engaging in racist gestures directed toward other students."
Kunes told Action News 5 on Wednesday, Nov. 11 that she had withdrawn from the university; a source close to her separately confirmed the withdrawal to NBC News. It's unclear whether that ends the conduct investigation or what findings, if any, it had reached before she left — federal student privacy law bars the school from disclosing conduct-case records.
The ACLU of Mississippi said Monday it is reviewing complaints it has received about the incident, according to spokesperson Candi Richardson.
The family business draws its own scrutiny
As Kunes's name spread, reporters traced her family's ties to Kunes Auto Group, a dealership chain founded in Delavan, Wisconsin in 1997 that now operates roughly 50 locations across Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Her grandfather, Gregg Kunes, founded and owns the company; her father, Scott Kunes, served as its chief operating officer until he left in February, according to a company spokesperson.
The company told CBS News and Spectrum News that Alaina Kunes "has no employment, ownership, or professional affiliation" with Kunes Auto Group.
The scrutiny landed on the company anyway, in part because of its own record. Attorney William Sulton represents two people suing Kunes Auto Group over discrimination claims, including Wisconsin woman Makayla Starks, who alleges a service sticker printed with a racial slur was placed on her windshield after a complimentary oil change at a Kunes dealership in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Starks bought her car there in early 2025 and returned months later for the service before discovering the sticker, and filed suit against the dealership in August 2026.
A separate complaint, reported by TMZ and cited by the New York Post, alleged a Kunes salesman sent a customer a racist text message featuring a photo of an ape in a bathing suit. The company said in both cases it fired the employees involved and publicly condemned the conduct.
What each side has said
In her statement — sent to Action News 5 and NBC News, and issued through attorneys at Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona — Kunes wrote: "To the women I offended and to the Ole Miss community, I sincerely apologize. Before the incident on November 6, I never met the women involved and was unaware of their race, however, I recognize my actions were insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful."
She added: "I have apologized to the women, and I pray they will forgive me. I can never truly understand the pain I have caused them, and it was never my intention." Kunes also said she and her family had received death threats and harassment since the video surfaced, and asked for privacy while she cooperates with the university's investigation.
Ole Miss freshman Ariel Streeter told Action News 5 the video rattled her: "It's kind of scary a little bit; it can happen right now to me or somebody."
Tasha Bolton, writing online, called the video "absolutely disgusting and unacceptable" and said her family wanted to know "what steps will be taken to address this behavior and ensure accountability," NBC News reported.
On the family business, attorney William Sulton told Action News 5 the connection didn't surprise him: "Because discrimination is learned from parents and family. It's not something you're born with." Kunes Auto Group, in its own statement, said it is "built on treating every person with dignity and respect" and does not comment on private citizens unaffiliated with the company.
What happens next
There is no criminal case to track. The University of Mississippi's conduct investigation remains open in name, but Kunes's withdrawal and federal student-privacy law mean the school is unlikely to disclose any findings. The ACLU of Mississippi says it is still reviewing complaints about the incident. Separately, Makayla Starks's discrimination lawsuit against Kunes Auto Group over the racist sticker incident remains pending in Wisconsin, where attorney William Sulton says his office has fielded additional complaints against the company.
How this plays in court
Without an underlying offense like assault, stalking or a true threat attached to it, Mississippi's hate-crime law has nothing to enhance, which is a central reason this stayed a university conduct matter rather than becoming a criminal case.
Kunes's own statement — that she did not know the residents' race before the Nov. 6 encounter — is the kind of fact a defense would lean on in any proceeding, since it cuts against an argument that the conduct specifically targeted the women based on race.
Kunes Auto Group's statement that Alaina Kunes has no ownership or employment role there is legally precise, but it won't stop plaintiffs' lawyers in the pending Starks lawsuit from pointing to the family's leadership history and the renewed attention when arguing the sticker incident reflects a broader workplace pattern rather than one rogue employee.
A civil jury in the Starks case will ultimately have to decide whether the racist sticker and the separate racist-text complaint were isolated acts by since-terminated employees, as the company maintains, or evidence of a culture — a question the newly surfaced family connection to Kunes does not resolve but may color.
- Action News 5: Woman apologizes after racist gestures caught on camera outside Ole Miss students’ apartment
- NBC News: Woman apologizes for making racist gestures outside Ole Miss students’ apartment
- CBS News: Ole Miss student in viral harassment video has family ties to Illinois car dealership chain
- New York Post: Family business of Ole Miss student who made monkey noises outside black students’ door hit with lawsuit over racism claims
- Spectrum News: Woman issues apology for 'inappropriate' actions captured on doorbell video at University of Mississippi