Man Blames Obama After Fatally Mowing Down Black Man In His Truck

A California man is blaming his black victim after running over him and killing him.  In addition, Joseph Paul Leonard Jr. blames Obama.

“Just because we got Obama for a president, these people think they are real special,” Leonard said as he sat in the back of a sheriff’s patrol car after his arrest for his vehicular assault on Toussaint Harrison, 34, the Sacramento Bee reports.

 A videotape of Leonard’s remarks in the back of a patrol car along with other evidence was presented at his trial that got underway this week.

Leonard burned 23 feet of rubber before smashing his truck into Harrison.

As Harrison lay on the pavement bleeding, Leonard got out of his truck and kicked him several times in the head with his steel-toed work boots, according to witnesses.

Harrison succumbed to his injuries two days later.

Leonard also tried to run over Toussaint’s friend Justin Oliphant. For that, he’s facing attempted murder charges as well.

The second count also contains the same allegation that Leonard launched the attack “because of the victim’s status and perceived ethnicity.”

According to evidence in the trial, the events leading up to the killing began a little after 6:00 a.m. when he and a friend, Samantha Silva, rolled into a McDonald’s.

Harrison and Oliphant showed up in the parking lot of the fast-food eatery shortly afterward, “offering food to homeless people that they had obtained from a nearby hotel,” prosecutors say.

Defense attorneys said the two had stolen the food.

Silva said upon exiting the McDonald’s, the two men approached her asking if she was hungry.

Leonard emerged from the McDonald’s, “and she described that he went crazy and lost his temper,” sheriff’s Detective Pamela Linke testified at the hearing.

Silva reportedly told investigators that Leonard got a chain from the back of his truck and “he was swinging it, trying to hit the boys.”

Surveillance footage from McDonald’s shows Harrison and Oliphant backing off while Leonard appears to be using his chain like a lasso, swinging it over his head.

Leonard got back into his truck, then drove out of view before he re-emerged.  The chain was still visible in his hand.

He went on to stomp on a bicycle that Harrison had ridden.

Leonard used a racial sult during his confrontation with the two black men.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

During the fight, one of the two men threw a knife at Leonard and another threw another sharp object at him, possibly a broken bottle, the evidence showed. Pictures of Leonard taken after he was booked showed he suffered an abrasion to his midsection and a lacerated cheek that sent blood trickling down his face and onto his shirt.

A toxicology test on Harrison showed he had methamphetamine in his system. Investigators found a crank pipe in his backpack as well as shards of broken glass.

Harrison and Oliphant fled on on foot after the fight.

Authorities say that Leonard pursued them in his truck before trying to run over Oliphant.

He ended up ramming into Harrison.

“This could have happened to your son if you had one out there,” Leonard told the deputy in the car. “This got too outta hand for me, man.”

Leonard said “I was in fear for my life. You see what they did to me? You make sure you include that in the report. … I beat them off me. … They cut me.”

At one point Leonard said, “Maybe I’m wrong.”

“I mean it was pretty bad,” he said. “If those punks wanted bad, they got bad.” He said “I became the aggressor.”

Leonard went on to say, “You know, I think people are getting tired of being abused by the situation, the way people are being. I myself am tired of it. I am victimized every time I turn around.”

Leonard will testify in his own behalf when the trial resumes Nov. 17, according to the defense attorney.

His attorney told the jury that Leonard claims he was trying to apprehend Harrison and Oliphant before he wound up killing the one man.

According to prosecutors, Leonard has a history of aggressive behavior.

Watch courtesy of KVOR-TV:

H/T: Raw Story.

 

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