A black protester who was getting escorted by police out of GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s rally in Fayetteville, NC last night was sucker-punched by a white attendee to the event. After the punch, police officers detained … the protester?
Video here:
More from the Washington Post:
Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, said the punch came out of nowhere.
“Boom, he caught me,” Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.”
An effort is now underway to identify the man in the video:
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/707910779698216960
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Update:
The assailant has been identified as 78-year-old John McGraw:
78-year-old Trump rally attendee charged after punching Black Lives protester in the face https://t.co/M3hCUcTmO6 pic.twitter.com/lsHW4EfXs2
— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) March 10, 2016
More:
John McGraw, 78, was questioned and arrested by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in connection with the incident after police identified him as the man in the video, public information officer Sgt. Sean Swain told CNN.
McGraw appears in the video to punch a black protester in the face as he was being escorted out of the venue with a group of protesters by a half-dozen police officers. The incident occurred during Trump’s rally Wednesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The department has also opened an internal investigation probing whether the officers in the video, who did not detain or arrest McGraw on site, should have done so, Swain said.
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Update:
Whoa:
Shocking comments from the Trump supporter who punched a protestor in NC on Wednesday… https://t.co/C2E4foGDFA pic.twitter.com/faLMkbfJ05
— Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) March 10, 2016
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