Trans Wheelchair User Shot With Pellet Gun on Way to Grocery Store
Facebook.He was shot in each leg, on the side, and the wrist, but was unable to get the assailant's plate number.A pellet gun is normally used for target shooting, hunting, or pest control, and can be dangerous when used improperly.
Under Michigan law, pellet and BB guns require a license, same as normal firearms, and a safety inspection certificate—meaning you cannot buy one without a legitimate permit.Blake-Newton told Click On Detroit that his wounds after being shot with the pellet gun were "so bad that I was leaking" and "puddles of fluid were around my legs at the hospital." Blake-Newton telephoned his husband Gareth Newton, who called an ambulance to the scene.Blake-Newton was then treated for minor injuries at a local hospital, where he said that he was left waiting before the pellets were taken out by staff despite saying he was in pain, as he reported in a video shared on Facebook."No one should have to go through this," he told Click On Detroit. "Since this happened, I can't get comfortable.
I have barely been able to sleep due to the pain."He believes that the attack was motivated by transphobia. "It didn't take long for me to realize that I was targeted, this was premeditated," Blake-Newton wrote on Facebook."This was because I am an openly transgender individual living in Pontiac, Michigan who runs a blog calling out despicable behavior that exists within our community.
It doesn't make sense otherwise, that my assailants would use specific slurs against me when the street lights were burnt out."Talking to Click On Detroit, he stressed that "this was just a pellet gun," but things could have gone much worse.
