COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – A White Army non-commissioned officer depicted in a viral video approaching and pushing a black man in a South Carolina neighborhood has been charged with third-degree assault.
Jonathan Pentland, 42, was charged Wednesday and listed as a detainee at the Richland County Jail and issued a personal recognition bail, according to online prison records, which did not show him as a lawyer.
The video, posted Monday by a woman on Facebook and shared thousands of times, shows a man, identified as Pentland, demanding that a black man leave the neighborhood before threatening him with physical violence.
“You’re in the wrong neighborhood,” Pentland can be heard standing on the sidewalk, telling the other man before using an explosive. “I’m not playing with you. … I’m about to show you what I can do. “
According to Shirell Johnson, who posted the video, the incident happened in a subdivision of The Summit, which has a Columbia address, but is technically outside the city limits. The video does not show what started the conflict. Johnson did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking further details.
The recording begins with Pentland, a first-class U.S. Army sergeant, who asks the black man what he’s doing in the area. The black man says he just walked and didn’t bother anyone.
Throughout the three-minute video, Pentland continually demands that the other man leave the neighborhood, getting in his face and, at one point, pushing the man, who almost falls to the ground.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said. “I’m about to do something to you. You better start walking right now. ”
At the end of the video, you can hear a woman Pentland identifies as his wife telling the other man he had chosen a fight with “some random young man” in the neighborhood, a claim the man denies then denies .
Johnson said authorities arrived at the scene and only gave Pentland an appointment for damage to the property for hitting the man’s phone in the hand and breaking it.
Officials at Fort Jackson, the U.S. military’s largest basic training center, said Wednesday they were studying the incident. In one of his Twitter accounts, base officials also said U.S. Department of Justice authorities were also investigating.
According to Pentland-related social media accounts, he 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 the women who join the army every year.
Asked on Twitter for his response to the video, Fort Jackson Commanding Brig. General Milford H. Beagle Jr. he said the behavior shown in the video “is not at all accepted by any member of the service.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this soon,” he said.
On her official Facebook page, Beagle said Army officials “have begun our own investigation and are working with local authorities.”
Earlier this year, the Department of Defense announced that Beagle would take command of General at Fort Drum, New York, to be succeeded at Fort Jackson by Brig. General Patrick R. Michaelis. No official transfer date has been announced.
Video commentators said they had contacted the Richland County Sheriff’s Department to request the filing of additional charges. In a statement released early Wednesday, a department spokeswoman said deputies had been sent to the neighborhood for a “assault” call involving one of the men several days before the video’s date and that all matters were investigated.
During an afternoon press conference, Sheriff Leon Lott said the other man in the video was not a minor but refused to publish his name. Lott said the man had been involved in other incidents in the neighborhood in the days leading up to the video, but said “none of them justified the assault that occurred.”
“The first time I saw the video it was terrible. It was not necessary, “Lott said, noting that he had met with community leaders and elected officials before speaking with reporters. Lott said his investigators had turned his case over to prosecutors, who determined which accusation imposed against Pentland.
Pentland did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. If convicted, he faces 30 days in jail and a $ 500 fine.
State Sen. Mia McLeod, who represents the area, said Wednesday in the Senate floor that she had spent much of the previous day in discussions about the incident and planned to meet with the sheriff later.
“My kids have a restless right to live,” said McLeod, who is black. “Another unarmed black man could die today because he was walking through a neighborhood that I am told is adjacent to his, doing absolutely nothing.”
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.