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When Jonathan Sanders, an unarmed black man, died last week in Mississippi while in police custody, it was a racially motivated killing, attorneys representing the victim’s family claimed Tuesday.
Officials handling the case either could not be reached for comment or declined to speak, citing the pending investigation.
Sanders, 39, a resident of Stonewall, Mississippi, died last Wednesday after allegedlybeing placed in a chokehold by Officer Kevin Herrington, attorneys C.J. Lawrence and Chokwe Lumumba told The Huffington Post on Tuesday.
Sanders, who trained horses and was often seen riding around in a horse-drawn buggy, was at a gas station with one of his animals at about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he saw an altercation between Herrington and another white man, whom Sanders knew. According to Lawrence, Sanders approached them and asked Herrington to leave the other man alone.
A witness told the attorneys that after Sanders left, Herrington allegedly said, “I’m gonna get that n****r.”
Lawrence said multiple eyewitnesses have told the attorneys that Herrington then got in his car with an unidentified civilian female and drove after Sanders, who was on his buggy. Three eyewitnesses who are related to Sanders by marriage, and who say they saw the altercation from their home, said the officer turned on his police lights when he was just behind Sanders. The lights startled the horse, which took off at a sprint, throwing Sanders off his buggy.
