An eyewitness of Saturday’s fatal shooting of a right-wing protester claimed that left-wing demonstrators identified them by their Patriot Prayer hats, hunted them down, and ultimately executed his friend.
The eyewitness
detailed the incident in a recent interview and spoke of his friend Aaron “Jay” Danielson, whom he described as a “good man” — not a racist or xenophobe. Despite that, he paid the ultimate price simply because he “believes something different than them”:
“Last night it escalated to the point that they executed my partner. They hunted him down. They hunted us down. They recognized their Patriot Prayer hats,” he said,
affirming the
New York Times report.
“Anybody who doesn’t know Patriot Prayer, [Patriot Prayer founder] Joey Gibson, the citizen’s advocate, he’s a good man. We support him,” he continued, describing him as a Christian and conservative.
“‘We’ve got a couple of them right here. We’ve got a couple of them right here. Pull it out. Pull it out.’ That’s what they said,” he continued, recalling the moments leading up to the fatal shooting.
“We turned around — I didn’t even, it didn’t even register that somebody was pointing a gun at us until the shots went off and [the shooter] took off running,” he added.
He said it took a moment to realize what happened.
“Did he just shoot at me? Ok. I’m ok. Turn over and Jay’s dead because he believes something different than them. Jay’s not a racist. He’s not a xenophobe or whatever label. He’s not an ‘ist’ or an ‘ism,’” he said, describing Danielson as an “independent” and “good” man.
“He didn’t do anything to earn a bullet in the chest,” he added.
When asked what he would ask President Trump to do, he pleaded the commander-in-chief to “send troops” to the city: