As questions have swirled for nearly a month about the background of Shaun King, the Black Lives Matter activist has refused all requests for comment and clarification from the media.
But he has fought back against the allegations made against him, just behind the scenes.
King, 35, has threatened to sue a former high school classmate for slander after he posted and commented on his Facebook page about a Daily Caller article laying out evidence undermining King’s claim that as a high school student in Versailles, Ky. he was attacked by a dozen “redneck” students in a 1995 hate crime.
TheDC obtained a record of that threat, which King issued late last month through Facebook chat.
King, a social justice blogger at Daily Kos who became a prominent figure following the death of Michael Brown, has claimed in interviews and in his recent book that his beating was racially motivated. He also said it was one of the first hate crimes registered in the state of Kentucky.
But TheDC obtained a police report from the incident and spoke to the detective who investigated. Though King has claimed he almost died from the attack, the report characterized King’s injuries as minor. He was driven to the hospital by his mother that day, and reportedly suffered an abrasion to his cheek and had some pain in his ribs and back. (RELATED: Leading Ferguson Activist’s Hate Crime Claim Disputed By Police Report, Detective)
The report made no indication that the attack was a hate crime. The detective on the case also told TheDC that there was no evidence of a hate crime.
There was also only one suspect listed in the report. He was charged with fourth-degree assault.
As The Blaze reported, a fuller version of the police report shows that the student who beat up King claimed he did so because King had threatened his ex-girlfriend the day before over an $8 CD she accidentally broke weeks before.
King declined to respond to the accusations last month, instead accusing TheDC of being “hateful” and having “nothing but bad intentions” in publishing the story. He also did not respond to The Blaze, which gave him two weeks to respond. He also did not comment for Breitbart News, which published an article on Wednesday providing evidence that King’s mother and father are both white.
Instead of disputing TheDC, The Blaze or Breitbart, King contacted a Woodford County High School classmate who had posted TheDC article on his Facebook page late last month. Other former students who attended the school agreed on the social media site that King’s story about the incident did not match what they remembered.
“Push this [REDACTED]. Keep pushing it. Call the local media, the national media, and tell them how I made all of this up and let’s see what happens man,” he wrote in the Facebook message. “I want you to do it yourself so I can sue you for slander.”
King did finally responded on Wednesday to some of the accusations against him.
“Incredibly painful to share this, but I hope you’ll read and share this as well,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Over 20 years ago, when I was 15 years old, I was beaten so badly I missed the next 20 months of school recovering from fractures to my face and ribs, and severe injuries to my spine. I had three brutal spinal surgeries during that time and it changed the entire course of my life. I received counseling for PTSD and have had multiple spinal surgeries and years of physical therapy since.”
King did not address the individual pieces of evidence laid out against him. He did not offer evidence that the incident was in any way racially motivated or that it was ever recorded as Kentucky’s first hate crime. He also did not repeat his past claim that he was beaten by a large group of “racists” and “rednecks.” Nor did he address the claim made by the boy who fought him in 1995 that the incident arose over a dispute about a broken CD.
“Sadly, several popular conservative websites are saying I made the whole thing up in an attempt to discredit my work to end police brutality in our country,” King continued.
He then shared a post from another Woodford County High School classmate who says he witnessed the incident. The man asserted that he saw a dozen “big white farm boys” attack King.
The former classmate accused the police, the students involved in the attack, and school and city officials of engaging in a cover-up by mis-reporting the details of the incident.