Shots Fired at Black Activists Marching to DC For MLK Event

Shots were fired at a group of organizers marching from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C., on Monday night.

ABC News reports that the group was headed to D.C. for the “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” march. Frank “Nitty” Sensabaugh, a Milwaukee activist and one of the organizers for the march, told WJAC-TV that the shooting happened shortly before midnight in rural Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Police have said that the incident occurred between two residents and some of the activists. “Gunfire was exchanged between the activists and the residents, and one activist was struck,” Trooper Brent Miller said during a news conference.

Sensabaugh said they took the victim to the hospital and their injuries were minor. State police have said they are questioning the residents involved in the shooting. Tory Lowe, one of the marchers, said in a Facebook video that the marchers had momentarily stopped before walking up an incline. According to Lowe, a man emerged from a nearby house with a rifle and began firing shots.

“He was like three feet away from us shooting and I told him there was a minister here,” Lowe said in a video posted to Facebook. “He started talking to us and talking about God and then tried to shake our hands and stuff like that. … He just started talking to us like nothing ever happened, like he never shot at us or nothing,” Lowe said.

I’m sorry but you can’t start shooting at people and then try to have a conversation. Like what sense does that actually make? White people, always trying it.

The group began its march on Aug. 4 and plans to arrive in DC this Friday to mark the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” speech. Sensabaugh and Lowe were among a group of activists that were arrested for blocking traffic in Indiana at an earlier point in the march.