A 74-year-old Michigan man has been charged in connection with an incident last month in which an 84-year-old abortion opponent was shot.
Richard Harvey has been charged with felonious assault, careless discharge of a weapon causing injury and reckless use of a firearm, according to WOOD-TV. His bond was set at $10,000.
Joan Jacobson, a Right to Life volunteer, was going door to door in Odessa Township to encourage residents to oppose Proposal 3, which would insert abortion rights language into Michigan’s constitution.
Richard Harvey and his wife, Sharon, have claimed Jacobson did not leave their property and became aggressive.
This is 84-year-old Joan Jacobson, a pro-life activist who tells me she was shot by a Michigan man after she went to his house and tried to convince his wife not to vote for a pro-abortion ballot proposal. https://t.co/LPlNMmjXva pic.twitter.com/1XKi52U4PG
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 29, 2022
Jacobson, who stands roughly 5 feet tall and weighs 120 pounds, according to the Detroit News, said she was leaving the property, as asked, and was heading for her car.
“I realized that I saw a man, and the man was standing right beside her,” Jacobson said. “And the next thing I knew, I heard a shot and I felt some pain. I was just stunned. The pain was in my back, and it was very severe.”
Is this too light of a charge?
“I was thinking, ‘Did he really shoot me?’” Jacobson said, according to MLive.
Richard Harvey has claimed that after hearing an argument between Jacobson and his wife, he fired a warning shot with a .22-caliber rifle.
Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler said in court that the facts of the case are in dispute, according to WOOD-TV.
Who is Richard Harvey
Richard Harvey Bio – Richard Harvey Wiki
Following investigation by Michigan State Police, Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler issues three-count warrant for Richard Harvey, 74, of Lake Odessa.https://t.co/dYBHNInFNh pic.twitter.com/euMB6nfnzb— prizebondlives (@WorldWikis) October 1, 2022
“There’s allegedly requests by the homeowners, including the defendant, for the victim to leave the property,” he said.
“When apparently the victim was not leaving the property either fast enough or at all, the defendant decided to fire what was characterized as a warning shot towards a tree on the property.”
Butler said that Harvey claimed Jacobson was waving a clipboard near his wife.
“He (Richard Harvey) allegedly made a movement to knock the clipboard out of the way with that firearm, allegedly in order to keep the victim from hitting his wife with the clipboard,” Butler said.
Jacobson has denied waving the clipboard, and has said Harvey was about seven feet from her when he fired, according to WOOD-TV.
Amid the dispute, one thing was clear, Butler said.
“The bottom line is there was an argument of some type, it reached a level that a gun was introduced into the situation and someone got shot,” he said.
According to WOOD-TV, the incident was reported by Sharon Harvey in a call to 911 dispatchers.
“Some lady over here wouldn’t leave my property, and she should be arrested,” Sharon Harvey said in recordings obtained by the news station.
“She drove on my grass. She’s trying to get me to sign a petition, and I won’t do it, and I told her to get off my property, and she wouldn’t go. My husband nicked her with a gun,” she said, later telling the dispatcher that the shot “scraped” Jacobson.
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