So, will this one … in Wynne, Arkansas, four young black teenagers were going door-to-door selling discount cards for their annual high school football team fundraiser. At one home, a black dog chased the boys into the back of a truck until the dog’s owner came out to assure them the dog was friendly; the boys then spent several playing with the dog.
Then they met Jerri Kelly; and her gun. Kelly had seen the boy’s in the neighborhood and had already called the police about the “suspicious persons” who were “yelling and screaming” in the driveway of her neighbor’s house.
“All males were African American, and I know this residence to [be] white.” Kelly told police. She reported the boys “horseplaying” in the driveway, “aggravating the dog that lived there” and when they turned toward her house, Kelly said she feared for her safety, and grabbed her gun.
By the time officers arrived eight minutes later, Kelly was holding the teens, on the ground, at gunpoint, demanding to see their IDs. Luckily, one of the responding officers recognized the teens as students from Wynne High School, where he is the resource officer. He told them they to go wait by the patrol car, but when they began to walk away, Kelly began lecturing them, saying her actions weren’t racially motivated; she said the boys were acting “suspicious” and did not look like salesmen.
You know, because they were black kids knocking at the door of a white house.
Jerri Kelly was charged with four counts each of aggravated assault and false imprisonment, both felonies, and four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, which is a misdemeanor. Kelly’s husband is the Cross County Jail administrator; after her arrest, and there she was booked and bonded out without ever getting her mug shot taken, which has drawn criticism from locals that she received preferential treatment.
You don’t say …
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