A South Carolina man seen on surveillance video capturing at a Black jogger with a rifle whereas shouting a racially charged assertion was charged with a hate crime and jailed on a $1 million bond.
Jonathan Felkel was charged with hate intimidation, assault and battery of a excessive and aggravated nature, and possession of a weapon throughout a violent crime.
Police say the incident passed off at 6 a.m. on July 17 in Richland County, based on stories from WRDW and WLTX.
Surveillance footage reveals Felkel seated in a automobile parked in entrance of a gated group when he grabs a rifle from the passenger’s seat, then fires one shot at a Black jogger passing by him.
He then places his automobile in drive, pulls ahead into the gated space, and shouts, “Maintain working, boy,” to the sufferer.
The sufferer was not bodily harmed.
After Felkel was arrested, he was interviewed by detectives and advised them he noticed a Black man in a white shirt earlier that morning and stated “he was by himself, so I used to be actually going to do one thing at first after which.”
When an investigator requested him to make clear the assertion, Felkel replied, “I used to be going to shoot at him. I used to be. I used to be going to shoot at him.”
Authorities realized that Felkel and the sufferer dwell in the identical neighborhood however have no idea one another.
Felkel is the primary man to be charged with hate intimidation beneath Richland County’s new hate crime ordinance that officers handed in June.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Division acknowledged that Felkel supposed to instill worry within the sufferer attributable to his race. That, mixed with different elements, led to his hate crime cost.
South Carolina is one among solely a handful of states that doesn’t have a state hate crime legislation, leaving it as much as cities and native counties to go and enact their very own racial intimidation statutes.
The violent incident involving Felkel has triggered requires the state to undertake one.
“That man simply felt like he might try this, and there was nothing that he felt like that was stopping him from doing that,” one Richland County resident stated. “So I really feel like we do want a legislation or a minimum of extra data of this ordinance.”
“It makes me really feel uneasy being on this neighborhood,” one neighbor stated. “It’s very unlucky. The truth that issues like this are nonetheless occurring nowadays makes me sort of really feel unsafe, particularly having younger ones rising up round right here.”
Richland County is the primary county in South Carolina to go a hate crime ordinance. The legislation makes the offense a misdemeanor that’s punishable by a $500 high quality or as much as 30 days in jail.
A choose set a $1 million money bond for Felkel’s assault cost, and a $1,075 bond for the hate intimidation cost, which is the utmost allowed.
Felkel reportedly declined his proper to a public defender. If he makes bond, he’ll be beneath home arrest. His subsequent court docket date is in September.
