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A Lebanon man who pulled up to a peaceful Palestinian rally in Harrisburg, shouted racial slurs and pointed a gun at attendees has been arrested, according to police.
Richard Kevin Blandy, 56, faces a felony count of ethnic intimidation and misdemeanor charges of making terroristic threats and simple assault by physical menace in the incident, which occurred about 6:30 p.m.
“It was fear. It was a terrorist event. Like, we were fearful that someone was going to get shot in that moment,” said Omar Mousa, one of the events’ organizers.
The announcement of charges filed against Blandy, who lives in South Lebanon Township, follows a day of urging by Muslim civil rights advocates for firm action to be taken in response to the incident.
Mousa organized Friday’s peaceful rally at the Capitol to protest the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza strip, which has displaced 338,000 Palestinians while cutting off electricity and water.
No one at Friday’s rally spoke directly of Hamas, the organization that heads up the government in Gaza, and whose military wings led Saturday’s brazen massacre; nor did they condone the violence, much of it committed against Israeli civilians.
Instead, protesters called for an end to “75 years of Zionist settler colonial rule” and the “genocide and ethnic cleansing” and spoke out in defense of the 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip “living in an open-air prison… fighting for their lives, and running for their lives,” Mousa said.
As attendees were leaving the rally, Blandy approached a group of the organizers in his vehicle on Third Street in front of the Capitol Building, according to police. He yelled racial slurs and pointed a gun at them, before driving away— committing several traffic violations in the process, police said.
Capitol police tried to chase him on foot but were unable to catch up to him.
Police used the vehicle’s license plate number to identify Blandy — and his Lebanon County address. The South Lebanon Township Police Department arrested Blandy about 7:30 p.m. and recovered the firearm he brought, Capitol police said.
“We call on the attorney general’s office, local police and federal officials to bring the individual allegedly responsible to full justice. No American should face such hate. This is a frightening scenario that we cannot tolerate,” said Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of the Philadelphia Council on American-Islamic Relations.
District Judge Gregory Johnson arraigned Blandy Saturday morning and released him on $50,000 bail. Blandy is scheduled Oct. 30 for a preliminary hearing before District Judge James Lenker.
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