Accidental shots were fired at a peaceful protest today in Lafayette, Louisiana. No one was struck or injured.
The accidental shooting occurred during a protest by the Not Fucking Around Coalition (“NFAC”), an armed black militia group. The NFAC was protesting in Lafayette because of the death on August 21, 2020 of Trayford Pellerin at the hands of police.
Police shot Pellerin, a Black man, after an emergency call concerning a man with a knife. Pellerin was tasered and then shot as he was entering a convenience store. It is believed that he was suffering a mental health issue at the time of the incident. “He wasn’t a threat to anyone,” a lawyer for Pellerin’s family said. “The only person he could have been a threat to was himself, and yet they did not take the time, the courtesy, the care for his life. And that’s why people are out here.”
In an interview after the protest, NFAC’s leader, John Jay Fitzgerald Johnson, said, “[w]e are US citizens exercising our constitutional rights and the color of our skin shouldn’t make any difference. We are the response. We are not the incident,” he said. “We are the response to repeated incidents or the response to repeated injustices.”
NFAC also pointed to a provocative social media post by United States Congressman Clay Higgins, which said “[i]f you show yourselves aggressively natured and armed in my presence. In my neighborhood. Where I work. Anywhere close enough to put my family or my fellow citizens in danger. That’s where your journey will end,” the post reportedly said. The Congressman reportedly later apologized.
The shots that were heard during the event were fired by Terrance Jones, who is not affiliated with NFAC. He was arrested and charged with “reckless discharge of a firearm at a parade or demonstration.”
“The protest has been peaceful for the most part with only one person arrested so far,” State Police later said. Had someone been accidentally killed or injured, the outcome may have been different.
Sources:
“Police: Accidental Shots Fired at Downtown Lafayette Protest,” KLFY.com (October 5, 2020).
Kelly Murray, Angela Barajas and Ryan Young, “NFAC Protest in Lafayette Over the Police Shooting of Trayford Pellerin Ends Peacefully,” CNN (October 4, 2020).