A DRILL sergeant who attacked a black man walking in his South Carolina neighborhood has fled after Black Lives Matter protesters rallied in front of his home.
Army sergeant Johnathan Pentland, 42, was seen in a video leaving his family house in Richland County on Thursday morning.
Pentland has not been relocated but the Richland County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t know where he is, a department spokesperson told the Daily Mail on Friday.
Pentland has been working since 2019 as a drill instructor at Fort Jackson, a US Army base that is located in South Carolina.
On Thursday, he was suspended from instructor duties after he was filmed berating and “assaulting” a black man in a video that went viral on social media.
In the viral video, the soldier continuously goes toe to toe with the black victim, identified only as Deandre, after accusing him of “hanging around” and “harassing the neighborhood.”
The three-minute clip, which has been shared thousands of times, shows Pentland square up to Deandre before violently shoving him.
He was charged with third-degree assault and battery after the incident in a gated community was recorded and posted to Facebook on Monday, and prompted the BLM demonstration outside his home.
Fort Jackson, where Pentland is stationed, released a statement afterward saying he will be suspended until there is an outcome to the Department of Justice’s assault charge on Thursday.
“Soldier conduct on and off duty must be exemplary to retain the trust of our communities and our nation,” the statement read.
Pentland was not arrested on the day of the incident, but an investigation is underway as the US Department of Justice looks into the attack.
If he was found guilty, Pentland will face up to 30 days in prison and will be penalized with a $500 fine.
Meanwhile, BLM protesters descended to Pentland’s home to demand answers regarding the altercation.
“I’m on your yard, bro, I’m on your territory at this point,” one woman roared outside a property believed to be his home.
“Come on! We want to talk to you, we just want to talk – we want to understand some things.”
“What [are] you going to do – you [are] going to stay in here every night?”
In social media footage, protesters screamed: “No justice, no peace.”
In the viral video documenting the racist attack on Deandre, Pentland was becoming angrier saying that the man doesn’t live in the neighborhood despite the victim explaining he also lives in the area: “I’m about to do something to you, you better start walking,” he raged.
“You’re in the wrong neighborhood, mother f****r,” Pentland says. “I ain’t playing with you. … I’m about to show you what I can do.”
Deandra tells Pentland “You smell drunk… you are drunk,” Deandre says as Pentland leans over him.
“I’m not harassing anyone, I’m walking through the neighborhood. I live here,” the victim continues in the video.
His wife, Cassie Pentland can also be heard shouting the man in the clip, calling him “an aggressor,” before later telling him: “You are acting like a child. Move on.”
As Deandre turns to talk to her, Pentland charges at him, aggressively shoving him seeing him nearly hit the floor.
“You better walk away. You are talking to my wife right now,” the soldier warns.
“Check it out, you can either walk away or I am going to carry your a*s out.”
According to reports, authorities initially handed Pentland a citation for malicious injury to property for slapping the man’s phone out of his hand and smashing it.
Sheriff Leon Lott said the incidents the sergeant’s victim had been involved in didn’t warrant what occurred in the viral video, noting: “None of them justified the assault that occurred.”
