Black man pinned to tree in what he calls 'attempted lynching' at Indiana lake

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A black man in Indiana says he feared he was about to be lynched in a heated Fourth of July encounter with a group of white men that was partially caught on video.

Vauhxx Rush Booker wrote on Facebook that he was walking with a friend Saturday to watch a lunar eclipse near Lake Monroe when he was confronted by a man in a Confederate flag hat who appeared to be inebriated.

The man followed them in an ATV and told them they were on private property, according to Booker, who told the man he believed he had permission to cross.

Booker said he soon learned that the person who granted permission “wasn’t the actual property owner.”

As he and the pal were leaving, Booker said they encountered several more white men who “quickly became aggressive” and asked them to take a different route.

Moments later, according to Booker, the men attacked him from behind, knocking him to the ground.

“The five were able to easily overwhelm me and got me to the ground and dragged me pinning my body against a tree as they began pounding on my head and ripped off some of my hair, with several of them still on top of my body holding me down,” Booker wrote.

Booker said one of the alleged perpetrators jumped on his neck, using what felt like “his full body weight.”

Other people who heard the commotion tried to help as the alleged attackers told them, “we’re going to break his arms,” while instructing their pals to “get a noose,” Booker wrote.

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