An Army sergeant who was filmed shoving a Black man has been charged with 3rd-degree assault
By Ashley Collman
Insider
April 15, 2021
Jonathan Pentland (circled) is seen shoving a Black man in his neighborhood
A US Army noncommissioned officer who was filmed shoving a Black man in his South Carolina neighborhood earlier this week has been charged with third-degree assault, the Associated Press reported.
Jonathan Pentland, a 42-year-old sergeant first class, was arrested on Wednesday and taken to the Richland County jail. It appears he has since posted bail.
Pentland did not immediately respond to Insider's email for comment.
On Monday, a woman posted footage on Facebook showing a heated confrontation involving Pentland and a Black man in his neighborhood outside Columbia, South Carolina.
Pentland is seen yelling at the man, getting in his face, and telling him to get out of his neighborhood.
"You either walk away or I'm going to carry your ass out of here," Pentland said in the video.
It's not clear from the video what prompted the confrontation, but near the end of the three-minute clip, Pentland's wife accused the man of having "picked a fight with" one of their female neighbors.
In the video, Pentland repeatedly asked what the man was doing in his neighborhood. The man said he was just walking, and that he lives in the area.
"I didn't do anything to you," the man said.
"I'm about to do something to you," Pentland responded.
When the man tried to address Pentland's wife, Pentland shoved him, causing the man to almost fall, the video showed.
"You're in the wrong neighborhood, motherfucker," Pentland is heard saying. "Get out."
Shirell Johnson, the woman who posted the video to Facebook, wrote that she stayed with the man until an officer arrived at the scene. She said the officer charged Pentland at the scene with malicious injury to property for slapping the man's cellphone to the ground, which happened after the video stopped rolling.
Johnson said she was out walking with her best friend when they came across the two men arguing, and that she stayed to make sure the man was not hurt.
"We circled back to get him out of that situation because we refused to see [him] go to jail or lying there dead simply because he was Black," she wrote. "The only thing he did was be Black while walking!!!"
In announcing Pentland's arrest on Wednesday, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott confirmed that there were two other incidents involving the Black man leading up to the confrontation, but he said it "doesn't justify" Pentland's behavior.
"There was some other things that occurred that really doesn't justify the actions of [Pentland]," Lott said. "None of them justified the assault that occurred."
"It was terrible, it was unnecessary, it was a bad video. The young man was a victim, the individual that was arrested was the aggressor, and he's been dealt with accordingly," he continued.
Lott added that the Black man had "an underlying medical condition that may explain the behavior exhibited in the alleged incidents."
Social-media accounts associated with Pentland show he works as a drill sergeant at the Fort Jackson garrison, the AP reported.
The commanding general of the installation condemned the video on Wednesday, and said that the Department of Justice is looking into the matter.
"The leaders at Fort Jackson in no way condone the behavior depicted in the video posted recently," the Fort Jackson commander, Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr., said in a statement.
"I remain deeply concerned for the members of our Army family, the young man and his family, and the tensions that activities like this amplify over time; please be patient as facts are determined."
Protesters gathered outside the Pentland family home on Wednesday night. Pentland's family was evacuated from the home when protesters started to vandalize the house, the sheriff's department said.
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