A protest marcher was shot in Bedford County Monday night as a group of activists was walking from Milwaukee to Washington for a Martin Luther King Jr. event and to bring awareness to racial injustice.
The person shot suffered a non-life-threatening injury and was taken to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, according to Cambria County emergency officials.
Milwaukee activist Frank Nitty, an organizer of the march, was leading the procession and live-streamed the incident on Facebook.
The shooting occurred as the marchers were passing through Schellsburg in rural Bedford County. In the live-streamed video, at least two gunshots can be heard. One of the marchers is seen bleeding from his face and he said he was shot before other marchers rushed him to the hospital.
Pennsylvania State Police said two people were being questioned in connection with what they described as an argument between a group of people and a resident on Route 30 in Schellsburg that led to gunfire.
“Gunfire was exchanged between the activists and the residents, and one activist was struck,” Trooper Brent Miller said, without taking questions or elaborating.
In a video posted early Tuesday morning to Facebook, marcher Tory Lowe said the group had parked to organize before they walked up an incline when a man emerged from a house and started shooting at them with a rifle, firing at least seven shots.
“He was like three feet away from us shooting and I told him there was a minister here,” Lowe said in the video.
“He started talking to us and talking about God and then tried to shake our hands and stuff like that. ... He just started talking to us like nothing ever happened, like he never shot at us or nothing,” Lowe said.
The march began in Milwaukee on Aug. 4 for the 750-mile trek to D.C. with about 20 participants, aiming to complete 31 miles a day, organizers said.
The marchers planned to arrive in Washington to attend the anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on Friday hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton and George Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump. Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day as the officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes.
The Associated Press contributed.
First Published: August 25, 2020, 10:00 a.m.