Details are beginning to emerge about what allegedly led to a possible racially-motivated attack at Lake Monroe over the holiday weekend.
As reported previously by WIBC, Vauhxx Booker, a member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, was attending a lunar eclipse viewing party at Lake Monroe on July 4th with some friends.
As Booker was making his way to the event, he allegedly encountered “a large white male (seemingly drunk) wearing an oversized hat with a confederate flag print on it.”
Booker claimed in a July 4th Facebook post that they were followed by the man on an ATV and informed they were trespassing.
According to Booker, “We relayed to him that we believed the organizers had received permission from the property owners to cross, but apologized and went on to our beautiful site just off the water without any further incident.”
Booker said he later learned that the man they encountered had blocked off access to the public beach with boats and ATVs.
“When folks tried to [cross],” alleged Booker, “they yelled, ‘white power’ at them.”
Booker said he and his friends decided to approach the men who were blocking access to see if they could “smooth things over a bit.”
“We were calm and polite, but looking back now, it’s apparent that these individuals began targeting our group the moment they saw myself, a Black man and were looking to provoke a conflict” Booker wrote.
Booker claimed the conversation quickly turned aggressive and he and his friends “simply decided to leave.”
“Rather than go back on the public beach they angrily indicated for us to use the trail, so we complied, and (friend and I) started walking away from them back to our site,” Booker said. “A short moment later they began following us yelling.”
According to Booker, he was attacked shortly thereafter by two men.
“I tussled with the two and another one joined in, then two more,” said Booker. “The five were able to easily overwhelm me and got me to the ground and dragged me pinning my body against a tree as they began pounding on my head and ripped off some of my hair, with several of them still on top of my body holding me down.”
“They held me pinned and continued beating me for several minutes seemingly become more and more enraged as they kept trying to seriously injure me and failing,” Booker continued. “At one point during the attack one of the men jumped on my neck. I could feel both his feet and his full bodyweight land hard against my neck.”
Booker said other people who witnessed the assault in progress attempted to intervene, but the attackers allegedly yelled, “we’re going to break his arms” and “get a noose.”
“With me still pinned underneath them,” Booker wrote, “they kept telling onlookers to leave the ‘boy’ and that everyone else (all white) could go.”
Booker said the attack was eventually stopped by onlookers who intervened.
“We called 911 who transferred us to DNR,” Booker wrote. “When DNR eventually arrived they didn’t contact us to ensure that no one was injured, instead they went directly to speak with the other individuals (attackers) first.”
Booker alleged when DNR officers arrived at the beach, they failed to make any arrests despite being shown multiple videos of the encounter.
“Instead the officers stated they contacted the Prosecutor’s office who relayed there was no immediate need to arrest anyone, and that the officers would simply file a report,” Booker claimed.
WIBC host Tony Katz offered commentary on the attack Tuesday morning after viewing the video. Click below to listen.
