Did John Fetterman really pull gun on Black jogger? 2013 incident resurfaces ahead of key Penn senate race
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA: As the race for Pennsylvania senate race heats up, candidates are being scrutinized, and one recent occurrence we witnessed was the first Pennsylvania Democratic Senate debate. It had all three candidates participating and trying to woo voters when moderators brought up the 2013 shotgun incident to candidate Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman where he allegedly pursued a Black jogger and pulled a shotgun on him, the question was whether he repeats a similar act today.
“The people of Braddock who know me, that know my heart, know that 2013 had nothing to do with what we’re saying today. There was no profiling or anything involved,” Fetterman explained at the debate. The candidate is facing criticism from opponents for wrongly believing that the Black jogger was involved in a shooting. It is believed that if Fetterman wins the Democratic primary, Republicans are going to make a huge issue out of it in the general elections.
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In an interview to WTAE during that incident almost a decade ago Fetterman said, “I believe I did the right thing, but I may have broken the law in the course of doing it, and I’m certainly not above the law." He had dropped his 4-year-old son home, called the cops, and then infamously decided to pursue the alleged shooter. However, Fetterman had claimed that he never aimed his gun at the man, Christopher Miyares. He later found that he didn’t possess any gun.
Miyares, beg to differ from Fetterman's version, and in an interview alleged that the shotgun was aimed at his chest. On the gun sound which Fetterman may have heard, the man said, it could be bottle rockets sound, not gun shots. Fetterman lost his first senate run in the 2016 Democratic primary, though this issue didn’t draw much attention among people. He managed to win the lieutenant governor run in 2018, reports The Inquirer.
His opponent, Rep Malcolm Kenyatta and Rep Conor Lamb have been severely hitting on Fetterman by bringing up this issue repeatedly on their social media platforms and interviews. “For somebody who has cut an image of an incredibly tough guy, you’re so afraid of two little words, ‘I’m sorry,’” Kenyatta said during the debate stage in Harrisburg, The only Black candidate for the Democratic primary said in April at a different debate, “John had nine years ... to not just apologize for taking an illegally loaded shotgun, chasing down the first person he saw ... but to understand why that was so dangerous, to understand how that situation could have gone a completely different way.”
In the most recent public debate at the Harrisburg, Fetterman once again defended his action saying, “I was outside on a cold January afternoon.” As per the report, he further claimed, “I heard a burst of gunfire with my young son and I made a split-second decision to call 911, get my son to safety and intercept an individual, the only individual out running from where the gunfire came and intercept him until our first responders arrived.”