Elk Grove Store Takes Down Confederate Flag, Citing Alleged Death Threats
ELK GROVE (CBS13) — On a day history was made in South Carolina, the Confederate flag also came down in a local gun shop.
While one occasion came after the stroke of a pen from a governor after a deadly attack, the other came after a shop owner claims he was threatened if he didn't take it down.
RELATED: Confederate Flag Moves Inside Elk Grove Gun Shop After Protest
Thousands of miles from where South Carolina proudly lowered the Confederate flag after 54 years, that same flag came down with a different explanation.
The sign at Wild Bill's says in all caps: WE CAN NO LONGER FLY OUR CONFEDERATE FLAG DUE TO THE SO CALLED "TOLERANT" LIBERALS THREATENING THE STAFF AND THIS BUILDING.
"I took it down because of safety reasons," said Jacob Shockley.
He says he removed the flag from the building after receiving death threats.
"A lot of them were just, 'Watch the building; it's going to come down; you guys are racists; you guys are intolerant," he said.
Angry protesters came to his shop last week to demand the removal of the flag. The shop placed the flag outside the store after nine people were shot to death in a historically black church.
Shockley told CBS13 they chose to put the flag outside the shop then because "Everybody started caving in. Saying that's a racist flag. But we don't believe it's a racist flag."
Tanya Faison, the founder of the group Incite Insight, says she's under attack, too.
"Threats from across the country, from people affiliated with the KKK or neo-nazi groups," she said.
She says she's received harassing Facebook messages like one reading, "Do you want a peaceful protest at your job?"
The store says it has no plans to put the flag back up.
