Man Shot In Indiana While Allegedly Flying Confederate Flag From Truck
By aaroncynic in News on Jul 27, 2015 10:15PM
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A 28-year-old Arkansas man was shot last week in South Bend after he allegedly sparked an altercation with a group of African-American men over a confederate flag flying from his truck.
According to the South Bend Tribune, witnesses say the man, who is white, pulled into a convenience store in a predominantly black neighborhood driving a Ford Explorer with a confederate flag mounted to either the back or side of the vehicle. He quickly began to exchange words with three African-American men, reportedly shouting racial slurs at them. A store employee told police the man then brandished a large machete, and was allegedly driving his car in reverse towards the group when a man fired three rounds from a handgun.
The man fled to a nearby friend’s house, where police arrived. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Despite flying the Confederate Flag, which has served as both a symbol of the South's failed attempt to secede from the United States and a symbol of racism, (particularly after it was flown at statehouse buildings during the height of the civil rights movement to show opposition to the idea that people of color should have the same rights as white people), Cally Baker says her friend, reportedly an army veteran, is not a racist.
“It is a Confederate flag, I can attest to that,” Baker told the South Bend Tribune yesterday. “But it has a military emblem on it so it was something he was proud of more or less because of the military aspect of it.”
In perhaps a more confusing statement, she also disputed accounts her friend threatened the men with a weapon. “He had absolutely no weapon on him but the machete, and it was in the back of the truck, so he had no way to get to it,” she told reporters.
Police say they’re still looking for the shooter.
“We want to talk to these individuals from the opposing side because we want to get the story and see aggravating and mitigating circumstances,” Captain Phil Trent of the South Bend Police Department told WNDU-NBC.