It's a conclusion that many people make: Confederate flag equals white racist.
The rebel battle flag was flying from a stand in Michael David Westerman's truck bed the day he was shot to death. But the tinted windows of his pickup hid something from his alleged attackers: Westerman was a friend, a 19-year-old graduate of a high school whose teams are nicknamed the Rebels.Westerman, who was white, was killed Saturday by a gunshot to the heart. Charged with murder in juvenile court Thursday were four black youths: Freddy Morrow, Damien Darden and Tony Andrews, all 17, and Marcus Merriweather, 15.
"I've talked to all of them and the only thing that might have motivated them was the fact that the truck had a Rebel flag on it," said Robertson County sheriff's detective Dave Benton.
"The suspects thought there were several males in the truck. They didn't know until later that they had known him. They were friends," said Benton, who added that two of the suspects might not have known Westerman.
The county prosecutor has asked that the teens, all from Guthrie, Ky., be tried as adults. Westerman, 19, was from Elkton, Ky., about three miles away.
The shooting has heightened racial tension in Guthrie, a town of 1,400 on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. About 60 percent of Guthrie's residents are white and 40 percent black.
There have been four cross-burnings since the shooting Saturday, including one on Morrow's front lawn. Authorities thought at least one cross-burning was to protest the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The FBI is investigating, and state police are helping local officers patrol the town.
David Westerman, the victim's father, appealed to whites not to seek revenge. "Michael would not have done it, and I don't want them to do it," he said. "I just want the justice system to do its job."
Westerman said the Confederate flag was an expression of pride for students at Todd Central High School, his son's alma mater. Several people displayed the flags on their vehicles at Westerman's funeral Wednesday.
"It's a Rebel flag. It hangs in the school. It's no big deal," Westerman said. "It's something people kicked up that's not worth being kicked up."
But Clarence Johnson, a retired firefighter and prominent leader in Guthrie's black community, blamed the shooting on the flag. He said the teens just wanted to get the driver's attention.
"They didn't intend to hurt him," Johnson said. "They just wanted to stop him about the flag."
Michael Westerman and his wife, Hannah, stopped Saturday at a Guthrie gas station and market.
A carload of black youths then followed the Westermans a few miles across the Kentucky border into Tennessee and several shots from a .32-caliber pistol were fired at their truck.
Westerman had a loaded .380 automatic pistol in his truck, but didn't fire it, his wife said.