Officers with Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources are investigating an alleged lynching attempt directed at a black man over the weekend, after multiple videos of the incident surfaced online.
Vauhxx Booker from Bloomington claims that on July 4 he was attacked by five white men while walking in a wooded area near Lake Monroe, simply because he’s black and they were “looking to provoke a conflict.”
“Get a noose,” Booker alleges he heard one of them say after the men set upon him.
I don’t want to recount this, but I was almost the victim of an attempted lynching. I don’t want this to have happened…
At least three eyewitness videos have surfaced of the incident, one of which shows Booker being held down by two men, while two others yell at people nearby to leave. “Shake your head at me and go,” says one of the men to the person holding the camera.
The two other videos show a standoff in which Booker and the people who have helped him break free try to get away from the alleged attackers, who seem reluctant to let him go.
“The incident is under investigation and the final report will be forwarded to the Monroe County prosecutor’s office upon completion,” said Captain Jet Quillen of the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Attorney Katharine Liell said on Facebook that she represents Booker and the case is already “under active review by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office.”
Booker wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that he was attacked while hiking in a forest with his friends when a group of white men began following them. “The individuals were calm for a moment then quickly became aggressive,” he said.
Things seriously escalated when the group following behind then allegedly grabbed Booker and pulled him away from his friends, before they “dragged me, pinning my body against a tree as they began pounding on my head and ripped off some of my hair.”
Some “white allies” witnessing the scene unfold rushed over to intervene and managed to pull the attackers off Booker, he said in his account of the incident. “My enduring gratitude to those who stopped merely being bystanders and acted to aid me.”
Booker’s detailed post about the alleged attack, coupled with the footage, generated a lot of traction online, with many commenters taking pity on him and trying to help him recover from any residual trauma he may be experiencing.
“I am so ashamed to live in Indiana,” one Twitter user posted after seeing some of the footage, while another wrote: “This is disgusting.”
Other people on social media tried to doxx the attackers from the video.
Racial tensions are high in the US amid the ongoing nationwide Black Lives Matter protests. The demonstrations themselves were initially provoked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died of asphyxia after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes during his arrest.
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