Mississippi Father & Son Chases And Shoots At Black Teens Arrested

AHMAUD ARBERY REDUX?

A Mississippi father and son were arrest­ed after chas­ing two Black teens rid­ing ATVs and shoot­ing at them over the week­end. Two white men, 48-year-old Wade Oscar Twiner and his 22-year-old son Lane Twiner have been charged with aggra­vat­ed assault after they pur­sued two Black teenagers rid­ing ATVs in Yazoo County, Mississippi, on Sunday, Sept. 27.
The father and son, “pur­sued them and tried to stop them and to shoot them and bump them with the four-wheel­er,” said Yazoo County Sheriff Jacob Sheriff told WBLT news. Authorities are inves­ti­gat­ing the inci­dent as a pos­si­ble hate crime. The teens were the only Black peo­ple on the road who were assault­ed, although it is a com­mon des­ti­na­tion for joyrides on ATVs, hors­es, and buggies.
“We’re still look­ing at some things on that to see if we can estab­lish a hate crime or not. We’ve got to get with the DA and look at the statutes to say whether that would be a hate crime or not,” Sheriff said.

ONE VICTIM’S MOHER SPOKE ABOUT HER SON’S ORDEAL

“Not only did they shoot at him, but they also ran into the back of his four-wheel­er, and that could also have been mur­der right then and there,” she said. Both teens’ iden­ti­ties remain undisclosed.
One of the teens report­ed that he can still hear the sound of the gun­shots when he clos­es his eyes. He said he had trou­ble sleep­ing the night of the inci­dent and could see both men shoot­ing at him at one point, one aim­ing from the driver’s side win­dow, and the oth­er reach­ing over the roof from the passenger’s side.
“It was kind of dif­fi­cult last night since it was the first night it hap­pened, so we just have to take it step by step, day by day to see how it plays out,” the victim’s moth­er said.
He also not­ed that he had not been tres­pass­ing on the Twiner’s prop­er­ty. The Twiners said that because they pay tax­es and own prop­er­ty on both sides of the road they should not have to deal with peo­ple rid­ing ATVs on the road.
The Twiners were booked at the Yazoo Regional Correctional Facility, with bonds set at $70,000. They were due to appear in court on Tuesday.