A man from Charlotte, North Carolina, was under arrest accused of shooting from a car at a group of 30 supporters of President Donald Trump who were gathered at a roadside for a political rally in Fort Mill, South Carolina, police said.
Twenty-three-year-old Marquise Damarius Asomani was being held on $75,000 bail on six counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, unlawful carrying of a pistol, pointing a firearm and possession of a firearm during a violent crime, the Fort Mill Police Department said on its Facebook page. No one was injured.
Police said the Trump supporters had gathered on a bridge over Interstate 77 waving American flags and Trump flags and placards, The Associated Press reported quoting South Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Rhyne. At about 6:50 p.m. three men drove by more than once “making derogatory remarks and yelling obscenities…from their vehicle.”
As the vehicle turned to enter I-77 northbound, the driver continued yelling, extended his arm through the window with what appeared to be a pistol. Several shots were then heard.
A South Carolina Highway Patrol officer was approaching the area during the incident, observed the shooting and attempted to follow the suspect's vehicle, a red Volkswagen Jetta, onto the interstate but lost sight of it.
The vehicle was located abandoned behind a closed business, but another vehicle was seen leaving the area with one individual wearing clothing that matched one of the suspects. The vehicle was stopped, the three suspects were identified and Asomani was arrested. The other two were not charged.
Trump had stopped briefly at an airport in Greer, South Carolina, about 90 miles west of Fort Mill after appearing at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte earlier in the day.
“Everybody was cutting up and having fun and laughing and everybody on 77 was blowing the horns and waving,” Angie Freeman, one of the Trump supporters told Charlotte ABC network affiliate WSOC. “We had all the windows down because we had all the flags out the windows, and it was very loud and it was four or five shots.”
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