A white couple in Florida have been arrested for opening fire on an unarmed black family who were returning a U-Haul van at a strip mall because they thought they were trying to steal gas.
Wallace, 77, and Beverly Fountain, 72, have each been charged with three counts of aggravated assault following the shooting incident at the strip mall they own in Tallahassee on August 27.
They are accused of firing their guns at two black men and a 10-year-old child who were returning a U-Haul at a rental drop-off located at the strip mall.
Police say the couple incorrectly assumed the black men were linked to recent vandalism and theft of gas at the strip mall.
The two men who were fired at, Kendrick Clemons and Charles McMillon Jr., told the Tallahassee Democrat that they were just returning the U-Haul they had rented when they heard the gunfire.
They say Clemons had driven the U-Haul to the drop off spot and McMillon followed behind in his GMC truck to give him a ride back.
The men, who also had McMillon’s 10-year-old son with them, said they were sitting in McMillon’s truck ready to leave when they saw the Fountains coming towards them armed with their guns.
They say the couple pointed their guns at them and shouted: ‘Don’t move’.
McMillon said he quickly reversed and sped off as they heard gunshots ring out.
The victims are now filing a lawsuit against the Fountains and also the U-Haul company.
The Tallahassee police officer who arrested the couple was parked nearby when the incident unfolded.
In the arrest report, the officer wrote that he saw the U-Haul pull into the parking lot, followed by the truck.
‘The driver then parked the GMC by the U-Haul and based on their interactions, I assumed both parties knew each other and the gentleman driving the GMC was picking up the driver of the U-Haul,’ the officer wrote.
‘Their actions were normal, nothing out of the ordinary.’
The officer heard gunshots a short time later and saw the truck speeding away as the people inside motioned behind them.
The arrest report details how the officer then spotted the armed couple walking towards the truck as it left.
The officer demanded the couple drop their weapons and they initially refused to obey the comands, according to the report.
‘The male and female could be heard saying that the occupants were possibly stealing fuel and that the male could not hear my verbal commands,’ the arrest report says.
‘Both the male and the female were not obeying my commands at first, however, they eventually placed the firearms on the ground and laid on the ground, away from the firearms.’
After the couple were detained, they told police that people had recently been cutting fuel lines and siphoning gas from vehicles at the U-Haul location.
They claimed they were conducting surveillance when they saw the victims and believed they were planning to steal gas.
The couple say they fired warning shots in the air to scare them off. They denied pointing their guns at the victims.
Beverly admitted to police that she never saw the victims trying to steal gas.
The couple have since been released on pre-trial supervision and were ordered to surrender their guns within 24 hours.
In a Facebook post, McMillon slammed the judge’s decision to release the couple.
‘Who cares about that when my son had to witness something like that and how this has significantly affected him. I don’t care about their age and them not being in trouble in the past,’ he said.
‘My son is only 10. I was only turning my U-Haul rental in. The fact that these people had ammunition, multiple firearms, multiple loaded magazines is crazy as hell on what their intentions really were if the police wasn’t right there.
‘They were basically given a slap on their wrist as in what they did was okay. The system is crazy and messed up. If I would have done the same thing, my BLACK A** would at the least have to bond out.’
Source:DailyMail
