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A North Carolina man says he was shot at by an angry motorist who tore down a Trump banner in his mother’s front yard, an incident he believes reflects the nation’s growing political hostility.
Mark Thomas, who owns a river rafting business in the Nantahala Gorge, said he was relaxing at home on Sept. 6 when the shooting occurred.
Thomas told Fox News Digital he checked his security cameras after seeing a man wearing an “Antifa-style mask” step out of a Jeep Cherokee to look at a Trump banner attached to a bus parked near his 87-year-old mother’s home.
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The man, identified by police as Benjamin Michael Campbell, 38, was allegedly speeding before abruptly stopping and removing the banner.
“Being a Second Amendment believer, I reached over, grabbed my rifle and took off out there to the porch,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he fired two warning shots into the air before Campbell allegedly got back into his vehicle and opened fire through the sunroof. Campbell then fled — only to return moments later and fire several more shots, striking a refrigerator inside the home, Thomas said.
Campbell, an Atlanta-based accountant, fled before police arrived. He was arrested Sept. 30 and extradited to North Carolina, where he faces charges including felony 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.
Thomas said he was stunned to learn the suspect was a professional in his late 30s.
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“Some of these people, they just see a Trump sign, and they just snap,” he said. “The whole time I’m thinking, ‘This is some 20-year-old kid, and he’s going to figure it out eventually’.
“That was really my hesitation,” he added. “I thought, ‘You know, son, you’re going to live another day.’ And I came to find out this guy is 38 years old and an accountant out here in a full Antifa outfit.”
Thomas said he almost didn’t call the police after the first round of shots but changed his mind when Campbell returned and opened fire again.
He added that his mother had several other Trump signs on her property that Campbell never saw.
“His head would have just completely exploded,” Thomas said.
Thomas also noted that he had no intention of harming Campbell, citing the shooter’s poor aim.
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“The only thing that saved his life was the fact that he couldn’t shoot that well,” he said. “You would’ve had to hit me pretty good to get me to not do what I was ready to do.”
The shooting happened four days before the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an incident that Thomas said “really woke people up” to the violence happening amid deep political divisions across the country.
He claimed some Democratic officials have publicly encouraged hostility toward conservatives, further fueling divisions.
Thomas said he hopes to one day speak with Campbell to understand what motivated the attack.
“I’d really like to talk to that guy and find out what’s in his head,” Thomas said. “I’d like him to look at the video and see me standing on my porch and realize how close he came to losing his life over a banner.
“I swear I’ve thought about putting $10 on his (jail) account and getting him to call me.”
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