Black Lives Matter activists said a man tried to hit them with his car. The suspect turned out to be a judge.
By Lateshia Beachum
May 17, 2021 at 6:47 p.m. EDT
A North Carolina court of appeals judge was summoned by a criminal court Friday after being accused of nearly hitting Black Lives Matter protesters at a demonstration in downtown Fayetteville on May 7.
Judge John M. Tyson of Cumberland County has been summoned to appear in a courtroom in his own county next month where he will need to answer to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, the Fayetteville Observer reported.
Tyson is one of the most high-profile people accused of being aggressive toward protests demanding racial justice and police reform in the wake of worldwide demonstrations after the killing of George Floyd last year.
The summons came after local activist Myah Warren, 23, told a Cumberland County magistrate judge Friday that Tyson was the one who drove the vehicle that nearly hit her and other Fayetteville Activist Movement rally goers who were protesting fatal police shootings, according to the newspaper.
Warren told The Washington Post on Monday that she believes Tyson was intentionally trying to harm protesters based on his track record as a judge.
“He’s a well-known racist,” she said, referring to a case in which Tyson rejected the notion of race being a factor in the killing of a Black man who was fatally struck by a White man’s shotgun at a 2016 party.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/17/north-carolina-judge-protesters-hit/
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