FORT MILL, SC (AP) – A man was accused of firing shots at a meeting of supporters of President Donald Trump along a road in South Carolina.
There were no injuries, the police said.
The marquee Damarius Asomani of Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested after police responded to a report of shots fired Monday night at Fort Mill, the Fort Mill Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday .
Marquise Damarius Asomani (Credit: Fort Mill Police Dept.)
About 30 people gathered and waved American flags and displayed placards with the word “Trump”, said the sergeant. Bill Rhyne, South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The same day, Trump made a brief stop at an airport in Greer, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of Fort Mill, after speaking at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When the police arrived on Monday, witnesses said that three men had driven by them several times while making “derogatory comments and shouting obscenities at them” from their car, according to the statement.
They also said that the driver of the car then reached out through the car window while “holding what appeared to be a gun,” said Zachary. That’s when witnesses say they heard the shots.
Authorities did not say whether the shots were fired at Trump supporters or elsewhere.
Angie Freeman, a Trump supporter, told WSOC-TV that she was in a car parade with supporters waving flags when the shooting started. “We had all the windows down because we had all the flags out of the windows and it was very high and there were four or five shots,” said Freeman.
Rhyne said the shots came from a red Volkswagen Jetta that then left on a highway. A South Carolina Highway Patrol officer who had just approached the area tried to reach the vehicle, he added.
The policeman lost sight of the car after he left the highway. He was later found by police officers abandoned behind a closed company in Fort Mill, Rhyne said.
The authorities then stopped a white Chevrolet with four occupants that was leaving the area and identified three people suspected of involvement. Two were released without charge, said Major Bryan Zachary of the Fort Mill Police Department. Asomani, 23, was taken into custody of that group and charged with several charges, including six counts of assault and battery of a serious and aggravated nature. His bail was set at $ 75,000.
It was not clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment.