Sheriff on police shooting victim: 'We are glad that he is white' because we don't want 'backlash'

A still from a press conference regarding the shooting

(Image credit: YouTube.com/Screenshot)

last updated 15 May 2015

During a press conference earlier this week explaining the circumstances under which local police shot a suspect they were pursuing, Sheriff Ed Mattingly of Bardstown, Kentucky, expressed relief that the man who was shot was white.

"We are glad that he is white, and we shouldn't have to be worried about that. And we do not want any backlash or violence in this community because people have been misinformed," Mattingly said.

Mattingly's comments have themselves caused backlash in what otherwise might have been a comparatively uncontroversial incident: Unlike high-profile cases like the killings of Walter Scott and Eric Garner — neither of whom were engaged in serious criminal activities or attempted to harm police officers — the shooting victim in this case, John Kennedy Fenwick, was allegedly involved in a violent pursuit using a stolen vehicle. Fenwick is expected to survive his injuries. Mattingly's quoted comments begin around the 12:15 mark in the video below. —Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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