Parents of Teenagers Jailed for Opening Fire on Police Officers Blame Black Lives Matter
Chris Spargo, Daily Mail, August 3, 2016
The parents of two boys who are behind bars after they opened fire on a group of police officers have blamed blaming Black Lives Matter for the teenagers’ actions.
Marquell Rentas, 17, and and his cousin Trenton Nace, 18, were arrested on Friday after officers in the borough of Columbia, Pennsylvania came under fire for 45 minutes when they responded to an emergency call from someone who said that had heard gunshots.
No officers were shot or injured in the attack.
Police were able to eventually gain access to the house and arrest the teenagers, with court papers claiming that Marquell told the men: ‘I’m the one who did it, I’m the one who shot. My cousin didn’t do it.’
He later said while being loaded into a police cruiser: ‘I ain’t no p***y, I was shooting at you. F*** you, police.’
Now, Marquell’s mother and Trenton’s father are both saying in separate interviews that this is the fault of a movement that they claim wants people to hurt law enforcement officials.
‘They are in jail for doing what Black Lives Matter wanted them to do: shoot at cops,’ said Marquell’s mother Luz Rentas and Trenton’s father Roberto Rentas in a joint statement.
‘The truth is that these are two punk kids following the orders of an irresponsible organization and now they’re gonna pay for it.’
Kevin Ressler, a pastor and co-organizer of the Black Lives Matter chapter in Lancaster, responded to this by making it clear that the movement does not promote violence in any way, especially on police.
‘It’s very important that people understand Black Lives Matter groups across the country, and particularly here locally, have been very vocal about it, do not support violence,’ said Ressler.
‘No Black Lives Matter organization, or group across the entire country, has supported violence as a means to an end, or shooting, or attacking, or targeting police officers at all.’
The police report claims that officers were dispatched to the area at around 3:25am on Friday in response to a ‘shots fired’ incident.
The first two officers on the scene soon realized that shots were being fired at their patrol cars, at which point a perimeter was set up and more members of law enforcement were sent to the location.
Marquell was identified as a ‘potential suspect’ by police resources, who discovered he was staying at the home from which the shots appeared to be coming after speaking with his mother Luz.
The owner of that home, Marquell’s relative Joshalyn Rentas, then gave police permission to enter the home.
Marquell was found on the second floor near a ‘caliber scoped rifle’ and ‘multiple spent shell casings.’
Trenton was found in another bedroom with no weapon, but ‘live rounds and empty shell casings were found in his front right pocket’ according to the police report.
The boys were questioned later that day at which point Trenton said that Marquell had been firing the rounds at police while he handed him casings, saying that when officers arrived on the scene Marquell said ‘f*** them’ and expressed his desire to open fire on the men.
The two are now both being charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide of law enforcement officers, aggravated assault, assault of law enforcement officers, and counts of conspiracy to commit each of these crime.
Marquell is also being charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, even though he will be tried as an adult.