An Army Veteran Is Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison
He shot into a car of Black girls
It seems to be a case of racism.
Some Black girls were in a car when a man shot into the car, injuring one girl. He has now been sentenced to ten years in prison. He is an Army veteran who is 26 years old from St. Charles, Iowa. The shooting happened after a Trump rally in December 2020.
Ashley Collman wrote in The Business Insider on August 10, 2021, about the sentencing. The article title was: “An Army veteran who shot into a car full of Black girls after a Trump rally has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.”
Michael McKinney shot into a car and injured a Black teenage girl. A witness to the incident said that the injured girl and others in her car were “trading barbs with the Trump rally attendees.”
He was originally charged with attempted murder for shooting the girl. He took a plea deal in June. He agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury. The more serious charges were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to ten years in prison. Prosecutors were pushing for McKinney to serve the sentences consecutively, which means he could have been in prison for up to twenty years.
The judge decided to let McKinney serve them concurrently due to his lack of a criminal record and honorable military discharge.
The victim said that she thought she was going to die. She made the following statement:
“I believed I was going to die the day I was shot. I didn’t know if I would be able to walk again. I’m a 16-year-old young lady and would love to love myself, but it’s hard when I look at my scars and remember the events of December 6, 2020.”
The Associated Press had reported that a witness said that the girls in the car happened to be there when a Trump rally was ending. They were exchanging words. The teens were calling the Trump supporters white supremacists while the Trump people were asking the teenagers if they were on welfare.
Trump supporters apparently encircled the car, so the driver backed up and hit a pickup truck. McKinney approached and shot into the car. The victim was shot in the leg.
McKinney was carrying several firearms. He apparently told police that he thought he was in danger and was protecting himself. He apologized in court for his actions that day.
It is a shame that an Army veteran made wrong choices so that he is now required to spend up to ten years in prison.
