A non-commissioned U.S. Army staff sergeant was arrested on Wednesday after he was caught on video harassing a Black man in a South Carolina residential area, according to the New York Post.
Jonathan Pentland, 42 has been charged with third-degree assault and battery for the violent encounter on Monday, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
It begins with Pentland asking the man what he’s doing in the area. He responds that he was just walking and not bothering anyone.
“You’re in the wrong neighborhood, mother fucker,” Pentland— a US Army staff sergeant stationed at Fort Jackson—says. “I ain’t playing with you. … I’m about to show you what I can do.”
Pentland even got in the man’s face and shoved him. “Let’s go, walk away,” he says. “I’m about to do something to you. You better start walking right now.”
The moments leading up to the incident was not captured in the recording. But, Pentland’s wife could be heard at the end of the video accusing the man of picking a fight with “some random young lady,” which the man denied.
When police arrived on the scene they initially only gave Pentland a citation for malicious injury to property after he slapped the man’s phone out his hand, causing it to shatter.
Authorities at Fort Jackson said the behavior seen in the video “is by no means condoned by any service member” and that they have begun an investigation and are “working with the local authorities.”
