Anti-Trump vandal tears down yard banner, shoots at homeowners

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The vandalism of a Trump banner recently escalated into gunfire in front of a home in rural North Carolina.

A 38-year-old accountant was arrested for firing several gunshots at a family after getting caught tearing down a Trump banner in their yard.

Benjamin Michael Campbell was arrested Sept. 30 across the state line in Cobb County, Georgia. He was then extradited to Swain County, where the incident occurred.

He was charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, discharging a firearm with intent to incite fear, and willful and wanton injury to personal property. If convicted, he could face up to 17 years in prison.

Swain County Sheriff Brian Kirkland said Mr. Campbell was freed on bond Monday, but more charges could come as the investigation unfolds.

“There may be really more to the story,” Sheriff Kirkland said. “This is a guy who probably needs to be in jail.”

Videos of the shooting drew national attention on YouTube, helping to spur the manhunt for the suspect, who attempted to conceal his identity during the Sept. 5 incident.

Ardis Thomas, the 87-year-old owner of the Paddle Inn Rafting Company, said that a man clad in an “Antifa-looking mask” slammed his brakes on the two-lane highway passing by the family property, which includes her residence, the rafting company’s facilities and the home of her 62-year-old son, Mark.

The screeching prompted Mark Thomas to check the security footage on his computer, where he saw a Jeep Cherokee driving in reverse down the highway.

“The guy stops, and it’s a two-lane highway, and all of a sudden he starts backing up and he [Mark Thomas] thinks, ’You’ve got to be nuts,’” Mrs. Thomas said.

The man exited the vehicle and proceeded to tear down one of Mr. Thomas’ nearly 10-year-old Trump signs, which the diminutive perpetrator had to stand on his tiptoes to reach.

Initially, the assailant’s short stature and baggy clothes, his face and hair concealed by a mask and cap, led Mr. Thomas to suspect it was a teenager committing the mischief.

“He didn’t plan to stop and tear down my flag; it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Mr. Thomas said.

However, the efforts to conceal himself and obscure the license plate of the Jeep raised questions as to whether the vandalism may have been premeditated.

After seeing his sign torn down, Mr. Thomas, a hunter and gun-rights enthusiast, said he grabbed one of his rifles and fired two warning shots in the air.

“He’s a pretty small fellow, 5-foot-7. That’s why I didn’t shoot when he was shooting at me,” Mr. Thomas said. “All I could think about was, ’There’s this kid, driving mama’s car. Mama’s gonna wanna talk to him this evening.’”

Rather than heed the warning shots, though, the suspect fired back multiple times through the sunroof of the Jeep. One shot hit the dirt in Mr. Thomas’ driveway. Another “sounded like it hit something metal,” Mrs. Thomas recalled.

The assailant then made another pass by, firing an additional volley of shots that hit an outdoor refrigerator.

Following the incident, Mr. Thomas posted some of his surveillance video on YouTube and social media, garnering attention from local authorities and media. A video from Asheville’s WLOS received nearly 5 million hits.

Although most people who pass by the property offer their approval of the Thomas’ Trump signs, at least one other incident last year involved a kayaker tearing down one of Mrs. Thomas’ flags, leading her son to confront the would-be thief.

But the octogenarian widow, who served previously as a minister alongside her late husband, said she has no intention of taking down the seven or eight banners in her yard, some of which have been on display for nearly a decade.

Mrs. Thomas said she wished for the opportunity to “minister” to the alleged assailant who fired on her family.

“I want to find out what caused him to have that kind of hate for a Trump sign, and to help him,” she said.