Police Take Family Of White Army Sergeant Who Assaulted Black Man to Unknown Location After Protesters Appear at his House

Earlier this week, a white, South Carolina-based U.S. Army staff sergeant, Jonathan Pentland, 42, was detained and charged with third-degree assault and battery at the Richland County Jail and issued a personal recognizance bond. He was seen on a video, posted Monday by a Facebook user, demanding that a Black man leave his neighborhood as he also threatened the man with physical violence.

After residents in the South Carolina area found out about the incident, there were peaceful protests in the same neighborhood where the assault of the Black man took place. According to authorities, those peaceful protests turned violent after police officers noticed a broken light fixture and window. After seeing this, law enforcement officials went and had the family removed and taken to an unknown location for protection.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department took to its Twitter account to announce that they have moved the family and advised people to stay out of the area.

The protests at the Pentland home have become violent. The family was removed after it was vandalized. They were moved to another location and the neighborhood is being closed off except to residents. Please stay out of the area

— Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. (@RCSD) April 15, 2021

In a video that had gone viral, a white Army soldier is seen pushing a young Black man demanding that he leave his South Carolina neighborhood. That aggressive serviceman has now been charged with third-degree assault in the incident.

Shirell Johnson, who witnessed the incident, posted a video of it on her Facebook page.

“Me and bestie was out for our evening walk and came across this quickly escalating situation of a young man walking while black in the wrong neighborhood!!! If we had not been there it definitely wldve gone from 0-100 really quick! Mothers/Fathers protect your sons….teach your sons…racism is alive & well! The guy clearly assaulted the young man and we intervened. The only thing the white guy was charged with was malicious injury to property for slapping the cell phone out the young man’s hand and cracking the screen! We prolly helped save this young black man’s life today!!”