He became ‘irate’ when a Census worker came to his home. Then he got his gun, cops say
A Census worker just trying to do his job had a terrifying encounter Monday in Florida.
According to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office police report, Johnny Swinney, 46, approached Michael Cooper, who was outside sitting on the porch at his Bunnell home around 6 p.m. The government employee’s U.S. Census Bureau badge was clearly displayed on a lanyard around his neck, he told deputies.
Once he told Cooper the purpose of his visit, the homeowner “immediately became irate and began to scream at Johnny to get off his property.” Cooper, 32, then entered his home to retrieve an assault-style weapon and “chambered a round,” the complaint says.
At this point, Swinney escaped down the driveway to his car. The federal worker’s wife, who was in the vehicle, told deputies that Cooper pointed the gun at her husband’s back as he walked away, and she began to “frantically” honk the horn to warn him. As the couple drove off, they heard a shot fired, the police report says. They were not hurt.
The suspect told authorities he did not see the Census badge and thought Swinney was trespassing. He was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and held on $7,500 bond.
The U.S. Constitution requires a count of the country’s population every 10 years to allocate federal funding and determine how many U.S. congressional seats each state gets.
Hundreds of thousands of Census takers have been sent to homes of people who have yet to respond to the 2020 Census. The current deadline for submitting the forms is still in flux due to the coronavirus crisis.
In February, the government asked law enforcement to protect the people who collect the data.
“Census employees are required to approach homes and businesses to gather information, an Inherently risky interaction that subjects the employees to potential violence,” reports the bureau’s website in a letter. “Over the years, Census employees working in communities across the nation have been victims of a variety of crimes, including robberies, carjackings, and kidnappings. During the 2010 Census, employees visited 47 million homes and were the victims of more than 700 reported acts of violence across the United States.”
