Juneteenth: Senator John Fetterman Slammed for Pulling Shotgun on Unarmed Black Jogger
June 20 2023, Published 7:45 a.m. ET
Senator John Fetterman was slammed for pulling a shotgun on an unarmed Black jogger ten years ago in a new social media post that celebrated Juneteenth, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The startling 2013 incident resurfaced on Monday after Fetterman took to Twitter to celebrate Juneteenth and the Black community.
“Happy Juneteenth! Today we celebrate emancipation + reflect on the long shadow of systemic racism in America,” Fetterman wrote. “PA always stands by the unshakeable truth that Black families matter + Black lives matter.”
But the Democratic senator quickly came under fire when Twitter users accused Fetterman of racial profiling in connection to the 2013 incident.
“Senator, why don’t you tell that story about that time you chased a black jogger and held a shotgun on him because you thought he was a criminal?” former Donald Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh replied in a tweet.
“John Fetterman chased down an innocent unarmed black man,” added Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Spencer Brown.
“Even for the guy you pulled a shotgun on?” wrote one more Twitter user. “Did you ever publicly apologize to the black jogger you held at gunpoint?”
Fetterman first came under fire in January 2013 when he chased down a Black jogger with a 20-gauge shotgun. He believed the man was involved in a shooting at his quarry at the time and Fetterman later claimed he “did not know” the alleged perpetrator was Black.
“I believe I did the right thing, but I may have broken the law in the course of doing it, and I’m certainly not above the law,” the Democratic politician said at the time.
Fetterman also claimed he “never pointed” the 20-gauge shotgun at the jogger’s chest, but the jogger – Christopher Miyares – said the firearm was “aimed it at [his] chest.”
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“The people of Braddock who know me, that know my heart, know that 2013 had nothing to do with what we’re saying today,” Fetterman said during a Pennsylvania Democratic Senate debate last year. “There was no profiling or anything involved.”
Meanwhile, Fetterman came under fire again during the 2022 campaign trail when it was discovered the Pennsylvania politician scrubbed a number of mentions of Black Lives Matter from his Senate campaign website.
“The one section you seem to be referencing was removed when we updated and greatly expanded our issues page weeks ago,” Fetterman’s spokesperson, Joe Calvello, said last year.
