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A soldier has been arrested and charged after video showed a Black man being accosted for being in the “wrong neighbourhood.”
Jonathan Pentland, 42, was captured on camera confronting the young man and shoving him on the street in Summit, South Carolina.
Now Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says Sergeant Pentland, who is stationed at Fort Jackson, has been charged with third-degree assault and battery over the Monday incident.
The charges reportedly carry a maximum penalty of a $500 fine or 30 days in prison.
In the video the US Army soldier asks the young man what he is doing in the neighbourhood, and he replies that he is taking a walk.
Mr Pentland then told the man “you’re in the wrong neighborhood,” before swearing at him and and telling him to “get out.”
The man told him that he lived there, but the video showed that he was then shoved by the soldier, who threatened to get more physical with him.
Mr Pentland then claimed that the man was “harassing the neighborhood,” which he told him was “tight knit.”
Officials at Fort Jackson have confirmed they have launched their own investigation into the incident and that the Justice Department was also looking into it.
Fort Jackson Commander Brigadier General Milford Beagle Jr, said that military leaders did not condone the behaviour seen in the video.
“I remain deeply concerned for the members of our Army family, the young man and his family, and the tensions that activities like this amplify over time,” he said in a statement.
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