North Carolina deputies arrested a Georgia man and later extradited him after he allegedly ripped down a Trump banner and opened fire at a rafting company owner during a Sept. 6 confrontation, according to the Swain County Sheriff’s Office.
Benjamin Michael Campbell, of Atlanta, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, discharging a firearm within an enclosure to incite fear and willful and wanton injury to personal property, in connection with the incident outside the Paddle Inn Rafting Company in the Nantahala Gorge. The sheriff’s office said Campbell was arrested Sept. 30, extradited to Swain County on Oct. 7 and is being held on a $70,000 bond. (RELATED: The Inverse Iceberg: No One’s Fooled By The Left’s ‘No Kings’ Tomfoolery)
“I don’t want to kill anybody. My life has got to be in threat. I fired two shots in the air,” owner Mark Thomas told WLOS, describing how he reacted before the gunman “fired back several rounds from the road.”
Deputies said they were called to the business around 5:52 p.m. on Sept. 6 for reports of shots fired but the suspect vehicle had already left. Investigators later obtained video of a man parking, crossing the road, and tearing down a pro-Trump banner belonging to Thomas’s 87-year-old mother before the exchange of gunfire began, Thomas and the sheriff’s office told the outlet.
After identifying a suspect vehicle, Swain County detectives traveled to Cobb County, Georgia, where Campbell was taken into custody Sept. 30; he was returned to North Carolina on Oct. 7, the sheriff’s office said.
The case stems from an incident captured on CCTV outside Thomas’s business along Highway 19 West in the Nantahala Gorge. No injuries were reported in the initial dispatch; authorities have not released additional details about possible damage from the gunfire. Campbell’s initial court date and attorney information were not immediately available.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Swain County Sheriff’s Office.
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