A man from North Carolina has been arrested after allegedly shooting his son following a Thanksgiving row over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, according to reports.
Police are said to have responded to an emergency call about a series of gunshots that went off in a family home in the town of Cary, according to the News & Observer.
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Subsequently, Jorge Luis Valencia Lamadri, 51, was reportedly charged on assault with a deadly weapon and inflicting serious injury.
.. father needs to stop watching #maga @realDonaldTrump 's #FakeNews #FoxNews.. pic.twitter.com/MmkRl1A6Kd
— Jor ♥ El (@JoR3LofKrypton) November 30, 2018
His son, Esteban Valencia, 21, had been drinking alcohol when a heated verbal altercation, which quickly turned physical, broke out between him and his brother, Felipe Miguel Valencia, about whether or not NFL players should kneel in protest during the national anthem.
Mr Lamadri allegedly told police that he broke the fight up and asked Esteban Valencia to leave. Following that, the intoxicated 21-year-old refused, and began throwing patio furniture at the house from the back garden, which led to Lamadri firing his shotgun at his son, which is said to have hit him in the hand and leg. Valencia was then placed in hospital while Lamadri was put in custody, according to the News & Observer.
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The man is quoted as saying that he did not mean to pull the trigger on his own son, and that he only squeezed it by mistake when Valencia threw something at him, which caused a knee-jerk response.
Over the past few years, some NFL players, most famously the former San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick, have kneeled instead of standing up as The Star Spangled Banner is played in protest of what they argue is ‘police brutality' against African-Americans. The protests have however been met with mixed reception. President Donald Trump has previously blasted players who engage in the act as "disrespectful." Kaepernick no longer plays in the NFL and is in fact suing the organisation after, he argues, it marginalised him for his on-field political activism.
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