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Local News

Open carry incident in downtown Hastings called unacceptable

A man with gun on his hip, wearing a mic and body camera and being followed by a WWMT-TV cameraman was on the street in downtown Hastings Friday afternoon, April 29. The man walked into two downtown stores, and then left.

 

Melissa Broderick, in the WWMT newsroom, said the footage is part of a special news report named "Carry Controversy." Broderick said the main body of the special report by reporter Kate Tillotson is in Kalamazoo, with the Hastings tape used as additional footage, done with the cooperation of Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf.

 

WWMT News Director Steve Koles told WBCH that a decision was made by Monday morning not to air the special news report at this time. Koles said after discussing the matter with Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller, they decided it is still too soon after the mass shootings in Kalamazoo, and have put the report on hold.

 

The incident, however, has brought anger and condemnation from Hastings Police Chief Jeff Pratt. Pratt said the Channel 3 reporter confirmed to him that the live coverage of promoting ”open carry” was done with Leaf’s cooperation.

 

“I’m not against guns, or open carry,” Pratt said, “but to have someone in Dar Leaf’s position to do that when there are 4,000 students from 60 school districts in town for the Jazz Festival is just a stupid decision." 

 

“In this day and age, it is disrespectful to anyone who lives or visits here, as well as the students.  For the sheriff to push his political agenda at the expense of the students by promoting open carry with 4,000 of them in town is not acceptable.”

 

Leaf acknowledged that he worked with the news media on the project. “They asked me if I knew someone who open carried. I did, and I hooked them up with someone who open carries all the time. I found a body camera and put that on him.”

 

The man walked into Barlow’s and Gilmore’s on State Street and had positive interactions in both stores, he said. The same man went with WWMT-TV to Battle Creek, still open carrying, “and got the same reaction from the people there, which was nothing. A lot of people supported it,” Leaf said.

 

“I talked to the Kalamazoo County sheriff, but he said it was too soon after the mass shooting there.”  Leaf said he called the Hastings Police to give them a “heads up.”

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