A man has admitted to shooting into a vehicle that had four Black teen girls inside.
Michael McKinney, a white man residing in Iowa pleaded guilty on Thursday to firing his gun at the group of minors who were all under the age of 16 on December 16 of last year, Vice reported.
McKinney seriously injured one of the girls.
He initially faced attempted murder charges but took a plea deal that lessened his charges to intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury.
The day of the incident, McKinney was partaking in a Trump rally in Des Moines. The girls confronted the large group and shouted anti-Trump slogans at them.
Apparently, people from the group surrounded the girls’ car and begin shouting and blowing their horns.
“They were saying some racial slurs and the girls argued with them and it went from there, ” Danielle Gross, the mother of one of the girls involved.
When the teenage girls tried to escape the chaos, they accidentally hit a truck of someone at the rally. That’s when McKinney fired once at their car. A 15-year-old girl inside was hit in the leg and taken to a nearby hospital. She was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Bob Brekke Jr., the owner of the truck the girl’s into said he was glad McKinney shot at the girls, the AP reported.
Although his vehicle only suffered a scratch, Brekke, 73, was apparently “relieved” because he thought the girls may be armed. He also said the girls called him a white supremacist and threatened his life.
Video footage shows McKinnley donned in body armor as he shot at the girls. Authorities also found two loaded magazines in his pants and another gun in his car.
What’s even more bizarre is that responding police failed to mention race or mention Trump in their police report. In fact, there was no mention of the rally at all and they originally made the shooting seem like a traffic confrontation.
They eventually updated the report the next day but still lightened the Trump really connection by calling it a “gathering of people.”
