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Richard Wilson Preston Yelled ‘N*****’ At A Black Man And Shot At Him: 52-Year-Old In Viral Video Arrested

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 06:54 PST, Aug 27, 2017

Richard Wilson Preston took aim at a black man who was using a lighted spray can to fight white nationalists at the Lee Park entrance in Charlottesville, Virginia. As seen in the below video, the 52-year-old Preston walked down the stairs to Lee Park, turned around and called the man a “n*****” and fired a single shot in his direction. As reported by the Huffington Post, Richard has now been arrested and faces charges of discharging his gun within 1,000 feet of a school. The melee at the “Unite The Right” rally that took place on August 12, has landed Preston in jail in Towson, Maryland.

The white nationalist demonstration in Virginia turned deadly when one woman was killed after being hit by a car that plowed into a crowd, but the publication is noting that police didn’t seem to do anything when Preston fired his gun at the man. As seen in the below video from the Facebook page of Shaun King of the New York Times, the bandana-wearing man drew more than 300,000 views to the video after shooting at the Charlottesville rally. A woman named Rosia Parker was in Charlottesville when Richard fired his gun, and she said police did nothing when the shooting occurred.

Warning: The video contains offensive language.

https://www.facebook.com/shaunking/videos/1523025477736365/

Rosia told the Times that everyone heard the shot and ran, but that the police did nothing. However, Virginia State Police said that they did not hear the gunshot due to the noise of the crowd, people yelling, music and other loud sounds. If the police would have heard the shot, they would have arrested Preston right away, claim authorities. The video was found by the ACLU, and the organization then turned the video over to the FBI, as well as sending copies of the now-viral video to the Virginia State Police and Charlottesville Police Department. The ACLU didn’t make the video public until Preston was arrested.

The 18-year-old Daniel Borden was also arrested when video of Borden beating 20-year-old DeAndre Harris with a metal pole also went viral. When photos and video of the beating went viral, Borden’s high school classmates from Mason, Ohio, identified Borden on social media.

[Featured Image by Steve Helber/AP Images]

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