Man Fetterman confronted with shotgun says that shouldn’t stymie his Senate bid
A man confronted in 2013 by a shotgun-wielding John Fetterman — then mayor of Braddock, now lieutenant governor and running for the U.S. Senate — says Mr. Fetterman has “lied about everything” that happened that day.
But Christopher Miyares, writing from a state prison in Somerset County, also told The Philadelphia Inquirer that incident should not stop Mr. Fetterman from becoming a senator.
“Even with everything I said, it is inhumane to believe one mistake should define a man’s life,” Miyares wrote in one of two letters sent to The Inquirer. “I hope he gets to be a Senator.” (That last line was underlined three times.)
The shotgun incident long has been discussed in political circles as Mr. Fetterman’s career soared. But it has drawn new attention amid the racial reckoning stoked after the police killing of George Floyd and as Mr. Fetterman, a favorite of some progressives, emerged as the early Democratic front-runner in a race next year that could determine control of the Senate.
Mr. Fetterman and Miyares tell very different versions about that January day from eight years back.
Mr. Fetterman’s story: He heard gunfire near his home in Braddock and saw a man wearing a mask running away, so he called 911, chased him down in his truck and approached him with a shotgun in hand. Mr. Fetterman, who is white, has repeatedly denied knowing Miyares was Black or pointing the shotgun at him.
Miyares lived in Braddock at the time and said he liked Mr. Fetterman, but he disputed his account.
“He lied about everything,” wrote.
He has previously said he was jogging in the neighborhood when he heard fireworks, just before Mr. Fetterman confronted him.
“He knew my race. The gun was aimed at my chest while he loaded five red shells into the tube of the 12gauge TAC shotgun,” Miyares wrote. “Once he finished, he aimed it at my face outof the Ford F-150 Truck.”
But in a second letter to The Inquirer, postmarked on the same day last month, Miyares said Mr. Fetterman could face political backlash if the Senate candidate revised his account.
“Telling the truth on an incident 10 years ago could cause him more harm than good,” Miyares wrote. “Mr. Fetterman and his family have done far more good than that one bad act or action and, as such, should not be defined by it.”
He signed that letter: “Gooo Fetterman.”
The accounts of both men match a description in a 2013 incident report filed by Braddock police, who said Miyares was unarmed. The officer who responded to the 911 call said two people in the area stopped him to say “they heard several shots” before he got to Mr. Fetterman and Miyares.
The officer wrote that Miyares, 36, was wearing “running clothing” and headphones and was “very cooperative, but was upset that Fetterman pulled a shotgun on him.”
Miyares’ letters were in response to a letter from The Inquirer, seeking his version of the incident. He is serving an 18- to 36-month sentence after being convicted in 2019 of kidnapping, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint and other crimes against a woman who hired himfor a ride to work.
Miyares contended in his letter that he did not commit the crimes.
Mr. Fetterman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has stepped cautiously around the controversy since announcing his candidacy in February. He issued a statement then that he had “made a split-decision to intervene for the safety and protection of my community, and intercepted the person to stop them from going any further until the first responders could arrive.”
Butin a March 11 Atlantic magazine profile, Mr. Fetterman went further than he has in years in publicly discussing the incident. He repeatedly said Miyares “is now in prison” and delved into accounts of the crime that led to his conviction.
Mr. Fetterman also cast the 2022 election, according to the Atlantic article, as a choice between “somebody with a 26-year track record of working to advance the interests of marginalized communities over the word of somebody who attempted to impersonate a [car service] driver and abduct a woman at knifepoint and terrorize her, and is currently in state prison.”
According to the criminal complaint, the victim told investigators Miyares pulled out a knife after asking her a series of personal questions, driving a route not in the direction of her job and locking all the car doors. She forced her door open, escaped and flagged down drivers for help as Miyares drove off. He later sent her a text message, saying he knew where she lived and worked.
Still, Mr. Fetterman’s critics and competitors spy a vulnerability. Talk of the incident has percolated in past campaigns, when Mr. Fetterman ran for the Senate in 2016 and for lieutenant governor in 2018, but the 2013 incident has now received the most coverage, due to his front-runner status and the national discourse over racism and policing.