Dozens of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered outside of South Carolina at the home of a soldier accused of assaulting a black man in a now viral video.
The videos showed a large group holding BLM posters and shouting through a megaphone Wednesday as they stood on the street in front of the house of Drilling Sergeant Jonathan Pentland, 42, on the outskirts of Columbia.
“I’m in your yard!” a woman was seen shooting directly at the house believed to belong to Pentland, which went viral for confronting a black man and telling him she was in the “wrong neighborhood, mother mother.”
“We just want to talk, we want to understand some things, that’s it,” he shouted in the video, while others said, “There is no justice, no peace!”
“What are you going to do? Will you stay here every day?” Shouted the main protagonist. Other clips show even more protesters in the street shouting through megaphones later.
It was not immediately known if Pentland would have been home at the time, as he was arrested Wednesday and charged with third-degree assault and drumming for Monday’s meeting on camera.
The clip did not show what led to the confrontation, but a woman could be heard accusing the stranger of fighting with “some random lady,” which she denied.
Sheriff Leon Lott later said the man had been involved in other incidents in the neighborhood in the days leading up to the video, but “none of them justified the assault that occurred.”
He did not delve into what he was accused of doing and refused to identify him.
“The first time I saw the video it was terrible. It wasn’t necessary, ”Lott said.
Pentland has been stationed at Fort Jackson since 2019 and works as a drilling sergeant in the garrison, a 53,000-acre complex that makes up 50% of all soldiers and 60% of women who join the Army each year.
“Fort Jackson leaders do not in any way accept the behavior shown in the recently released video,” said Brigadier Commander Fort Jackson. General Milford Beagle, Jr.
“This action deeply affects our community: the residents of the Summit, the City of Columbia, Richland and Lexington counties and our Army family,” Beagle said.
The Justice Department is also investigating, the military confirmed.
With publishing cables