Indiana authorities are investigating a report by a Black man who said he was pinned to a tree by a group of white men, an attack he likened to an “attempted lynching. ”
Parts of the incident were captured on video by one of the man’s friends.
In a post to Facebook, Vauhxx Booker wrote, “I don’t want to recount this, but I was almost the victim of an attempted lynching. ” He went on: “On July 4th evening others and me were victims of what I would describe as a hate crime. I was attacked by five white men [with Confederate flags] who literally threatened to lynch me in front of numerous witnesses. ” Booker said he and his friends were visiting a public beach on Lake Monroe outside Bloomington, Ind., to join a gathering when a group of white men said they were on private property and began following them.
Some of the men became belligerent, he said. When he approached “sober seeming group members” to “see if we could smooth things over a bit, ” the confrontation escalated. Video posted to social media shows a group of white men holding Booker to a tree as his friends plead with them to release him. In the video, one man shouts at the camera, “You happy about this, you nappy-headed bitch? You and your five white friends? ” As Booker’s friends leave, one of the men follows, shouting, “Those Black boys want to start it all. ”
In his Facebook post, Booker claimed there were shouts of “get a noose” and “white power. ”.