Politics

Gallon jug shatters windshield of Jeep flying Trump flag

Someone in an oncoming car hurled a gallon jug of water that shattered the windshield of Andy Brogden's Jeep.

By Lightning Reports, Published: October 23, 2020

Although Andy Brogden understands that "there's bad people on both sides" in one of the more tense election years in recent times, the physical attack he and his family survived went beyond stolen signs and defaced property.

Riding at the tail end of a "Republican ride" on Sunday outside Mills River, Brogden watched in horror as a gallon jug of water flew toward his Jeep and shattered its windshield.

"We were driving down the road Sunday and we were in a line of about 15 or so cars," he said. "I was the last one in line as we were going down 191 (in south Buncombe County). The gallon jug of water came through the air and hit my windshield. I just immediately tried to decelerate and keep people safe."

His wife and daughter were OK but badly shaken, he said, and Brogden says they were all lucky he was able to ease off the roadway. Fortunately, "it's a straight stretch of highway. I slowed down where I could get off the roadway and we regrouped," he said.

In a report on the incident, WLOS-TV showed a surveillance video of a white sedan passing Brogden's blue Jeep. Brogden thinks that is the car the jug was hurled from.

"I didn't see it come from the vehicle," he said. "I did see it coming through the air but I didn't see the vehicle. All I heard was just the sound of the impact."

He said his wife and 15-year-old daughter are still upset about the violence.

"What concerns me is she's a new driver," he said. "She'll be geting her driver's license right after the first of the year. Now she's got something else to worry about."

The person attacked him "because we had the Trump flags on our vehicles," said Brogden, who lives and works in Hendersonville. "It's terrible. I know there's bad people on both sides but it seems to be more of the outspokenness and violence is coming from the left because it's unchallenged. They don't have consequences. They can do whatever they want to do it seems. Everybody sees that nothing happens and the next time two people are going to do it. It needs to stop. I hate to put everybody on the left in one category just like I hate to see everybody on the right grouped into one category but they need to stop the madness and do what's best for the country as a whole." If not, "it's going to continue and I believe it's going to escalate."

"It has been turned over to Buncombe County sheriff's department," he said. Asked whether sheriff's deputies had visited him and picked up the water jug, which he recovered after it smashed his windshield, he said they had not.

"I did contact them yesterday and asked them about bringing it up there," he said. "They said if I'd drop it off, they'd be happy to take a look at it"

The sheriff's office confirmed to WLOS that it was investigating the incident. The Lightning was unable to get an update on the investigation on Friday.

"We were very fortunate because it could have had a very different outcome," Brogden. He added that he wished people would "think of all of the consequences of your action before you do stupid things like  that. As far as I'm concerned, that's three different instances of attempted murder" that endangered him, his wife and daughter.