(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A central Michigan man has been sentenced to community service after pleaded no-contest to shooting an elderly pro-life activist who was canvassing at his home, the Associated Press reported.
Richard Harvey, 75, was ordered by Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger to complete 100 hours of community service after shooting 84-year-old Joan Jacobson.
The shooting took place on Sept. 20 outside of Harvey’s home in Odessa Township, in central Michigan.
Jacobson was campaigning against Michigan’s now-passed Proposition 3, which amended the state’s constitution to guarantee the right to abortion.
Harvey claimed the shot was accidental, but Jacobson said it was intentional after she got into a discussion with Harvey’s wife, Sharon.
He noted that he tried to boot Jacobson off the property before he shot her.
“I came out and she is screaming and having a great old time, and being told … at least a dozen times, ‘You’re trespassing, get off the property,'” Harvey, said in the aftermath of the shooting, according to Fox News.
He also claimed that he thought Jacobson might attack his wife.
“I’m thinking she’s going to smack Sharon with [her clipboard],” Harvey said. “So without thinking, I went to club it away with the rifle and my finger was still in the trigger guard.”
According to Harvey, “it went off.”
He shot Jacobson in the shoulder, with the bullet exiting through her back. Her wounds were treated afterwards at a nearby hospital.
The judge also handed down a two-month jail sentence and one subsequent year of probation.
Harvey pleaded no contest to the assault, which was a felony, along with the careless and reckless discharge of a firearm. He was fined $347.19 in restitution and is not permitted to see Jacobson under any circumstances.
