It was not unusual for Garrett Foster to be at a protest against police brutality on a Saturday night. And it was not out of character for him to be armed as he marched.
Mr Foster was carrying an AK-47 rifle as he joined a Black Lives Matter demonstration blocks from the state Capitol in Austin, Texas. Gun-rights supporters on both the left and the right often carry rifles at protests in Texas, a state whose liberal gun laws allow it.
Mr Foster bumped into an independent journalist at the march on Saturday, and he spoke matter-of-factly about the weapon that was draped on a strap in front of him.
“They don’t let us march in the streets anymore, so I got to practice some of our rights,” Mr Foster told the journalist, , who was broadcasting the interview live on Periscope. “If I use it against the cops, I’m dead,” he conceded.
Later that night, Mr Foster was fatally shot, but not by police. Authorities said he was killed by a motorist who had threatened protesters with his car.
Police and witnesses said the man in the car turned it aggressively toward the marchers, and Mr Foster then approached it. The driver opened fire, shooting Mr Foster, who was rushed to a hospital and was later pronounced dead.
By Sunday, Austin police officials had released few details about the shooting or the motive, or whether prosecutors planned to file any charges against the unidentified motorist, who was detained and has been cooperating with authorities.
Mr Foster, who had served in the military, was armed, but he was not seeking out trouble at the march, relatives and witnesses told reporters. At the time of the shooting, Mr Foster was pushing his fiancee through an intersection in her wheelchair.
Mr Foster and his fiancee, Whitney Mitchell, had been taking part in protests against police brutality in Austin daily since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr Foster is white, and Ms Mitchell, who is a quadruple amputee, is African American. She was not injured in the shooting.
© 2020 The New York Times
