A South Carolina man seen on surveillance video shooting at a Black jogger with a rifle while shouting a racially charged statement 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 high and aggravated nature, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Police say the incident took place at 6 a.m. on July 17 in Richland County, according to reports from WRDW and WLTX.
Surveillance footage shows Felkel seated in a car parked in front of a gated community when he grabs a rifle from the passenger’s seat, then fires one shot at a Black jogger passing by him.
He then puts his car in drive, pulls forward into the gated area, and shouts, “Keep running, boy,” to the victim.
The victim was not physically harmed.
After Felkel was arrested, he was interviewed by detectives and told them he saw a Black man in a white shirt earlier that morning and said “he was by himself, so I was really going to do something at first and then.”
When an investigator asked him to clarify the statement, Felkel replied, “I was going to shoot at him. I was. I was going to shoot at him.”
Authorities learned that Felkel and the victim live in the same neighborhood but do not know each other.
Felkel is the first man to be charged with hate intimidation under Richland County’s new hate crime ordinance that officials passed in June.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department stated that Felkel intended to instill fear in the victim due to his race. That, combined with other factors, led to his hate crime charge.
South Carolina is one of only a handful of states that doesn’t have a state hate crime law, leaving it up to cities and local counties to pass and enact their own racial intimidation statutes.
The violent incident involving Felkel has triggered calls for the state to adopt one.
“That man just felt like he could do that, and there was nothing that he felt like that was stopping him from doing that,” one Richland County resident said. “So I feel like we do need a law or at least more knowledge of this ordinance.”
“It makes me feel uneasy being in this neighborhood,” one neighbor said. “It’s very unfortunate. The fact that things like this are still happening in this day and age makes me kind of feel unsafe, especially having young ones growing up around here.”
Richland County is the first county in South Carolina to pass a hate crime ordinance. The law makes the offense a misdemeanor that is punishable by a $500 fine or up to 30 days in jail.
A judge set a $1 million cash bond for Felkel’s assault charge, and a $1,075 bond for the hate intimidation charge, which is the maximum allowed.
Felkel reportedly declined his right to a public defender. If he makes bond, he’ll be under house arrest. His next court date is in September.
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