A black man says a group of white men assaulted him and threatened to “get a tie” after claiming that he and his friends had invaded private property when they met at an Indiana lake over the weekend of July 4. .
Vauhxx Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County human rights commission, posted a cell phone video on Facebook showing part of the altercation. He said he called 911 on Saturday after the men assaulted him and pinned him to a tree in Lake Monroe, south of Booker’s hometown of Bloomington.
Law enforcement officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources responded and are investigating, Capt. Jet Quillen said. A final report will be sent to the Monroe County District Attorney’s office, Quillen continued, without providing other details about what happened or if any arrests were made.
The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
In his Facebook post, Booker said he apologized after the men told him they were invading, but that five white men attacked him. Booker wrote that the men threatened to break his arms and said “get a tie” while telling his friends to leave the area. He also said that one of the men had a hat with a Confederate flag and that the men made statements about “white power.”
A video clip he posted shows a white man holding Booker against a tree. Another shows a different man calling someone off-camera a “diaper” [expletive]. In another, the same man yells, “You invaded us!” And calls someone in Booker’s group a “stupid [expletive] liberal [expletive]. “
“We were calm and polite, but looking back now, it is clear that these people started attacking our group the moment they saw me, a black man, and were looking to provoke conflict,” Booker wrote.
Booker said he suffered a small concussion, cuts and bruises and had hair patches pulled out.
Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton and City Secretary Nicole Bolden released a statement Monday expressing “outrage and pain” over what they said was a racially motivated attack.
State Senator Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat, said he was “appalled at the racist attack” and asked Republican Governor Eric Holcomb to suspend and investigate the department of natural resources officers who responded to the scene for failing to do so. arrests
“This is not just a problem of violence,” Stoops said in a statement Monday. “This is clearly a hate crime and should be treated as such.”
In 2018, Booker spoke up after a Bloomington Transit employee accused Booker of stealing a bus pass shortly after buying a ticket. Booker said the employee sold him the pass, then was unable to find evidence of the transaction and called police. The unidentified Bloomington Transit employee was fired.
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