Vauhxx Booker: Black man condemns charges over alleged race attack

A black man who alleges that he was the victim of a racist attack has himself been charged with assault in the US state of Indiana.

Criticising the move, Vauhxx Booker told reporters that he had been charged “in his own attempted lynching”.

Mr Booker said white men had threatened to “get a noose” while attacking him at a gathering in July 2020.

Partial video of the incident was widely shared on social media and two men were later charged with assault.

But a year after the event, prosecutors in Monroe County have now also charged Mr Booker – a civil rights activist – with felony assault and misdemeanour trespassing over the same incident.

“There’s nothing more American than charging a black man in his own attempted lynching,” Mr Booker said on Monday.

He vowed to fight the charges, adding: “I don’t care if they want to drag me back to the hanging tree itself.”

Mr Booker’s lawyer, Katharine Liell, called the charges unprecedented. “I have never seen a special prosecutor open a new case and file charges a year later,” she told the news conference.