Hearing what he said sounded like gunfire and seeing a man running away, John Fetterman hustled his child inside and called 911.
What Fetterman did next on that day nine years ago could significantly impact his chances of defeating Republican candidate Mehmet Oz to replace retiring Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in November’s general election. It is the subject of a television advertisement recently released by a pro-Oz Republican super PAC.
With a shotgun in hand, Fetterman chased the man and detained him until police arrived. The police report indicated that the jogger was wearing running clothes and was unarmed. The sound of gunfire was fireworks. Two witnesses did say they thought they heard shots.
The jogger was black, though Fetterman told police he had no idea of the man’s race because of how he was dressed in the cold weather.
At the time, he was mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a working-class borough of 1,721 in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. Now 53, Fetterman has served as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor since 2019.
The 30-second TV spot, intended for black voters in the Philadelphia media market, is titled “Chase” and was written and funded by American Leadership Action PAC.
The $500,000 media buy is scheduled to run over the next three weeks on outlets such as BET, Fox News, OWN, CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, TBS and the USA Network, among others.
In the opening of the ad, news clips of the 2013 event accompany a voice-over that says, “As mayor of Braddock, John Fetterman chased down an innocent, unarmed black man. Fetterman falsely accused the man, triggering a confrontation with police.”
The ad then moves to an interview with the jogger, Cristopher Miyares, who details Fetterman pulling a gun and aiming it at his chest.
“I mean, there’s a mayor with a shotgun and six other cops surrounding me. What else could I do but this?” Miyares says in the ad, holding his hands up in surrender.
Near the end of the ad, a clip is aired of Fetterman saying, “I believe I did the right thing, but I may have broken the law.”
The ad closes with a voice describing Fetterman as “reckless, risky” and “wrong for Pennsylvania.”
Fetterman was not charged by police, and the event did little during the Democratic primary in May, which he won decisively.
Miyares is serving time in a Pennsylvania state prison for an unrelated crime. He says that Fetterman has “lied about everything that happened that day,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Miyares did write a message to the Inquirer saying that “I hope he gets to be a Senator. Even with everything I said, it is inhumane to believe one mistake should define a man’s life.”
Fetterman has admitted that he made a mistake, but he has not issued a formal apology, which troubles some Democratic leaders.
Michael Nutter is Philadelphia’s last black mayor and served until 2016. He has criticized Fetterman for not showing remorse about the incident.
“He’s not shooting straight on this, no pun intended. Just ‘fess up. Apologize,” Nutter told reporters. “All this other stuff—that he was the chief law enforcement officer or that he didn’t know the guy was black—just doesn’t really sound like he wants to tell the truth.
“It’s not helping him,” Nutter added. “Figuratively speaking, he’s shooting himself in the foot, and he doesn’t have to.”
The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler is a prominent Democratic organizer in Philadelphia who helped attract black voters to the polls in 2020 to help Joe Biden win Pennsylvania.
He told NBC News last April that Fetterman’s handling of the incident will impact some black voters.
“If you think black voters didn’t turn out for Hillary Clinton because she called people superpredators but you think that a white guy pulling a shotgun on a black guy won’t have an effect—in the context of the post-George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor world—then you’re living in fantasy land,” said Tyler, who is also neutral in the primary.
Around 11 percent of Pennsylvania’s registered voters are black. The turnout among that base must be strong for a Democrat to win, Tyler said.
During the spring, Tyler predicted that the incident would be used by Republicans to deter black voters from supporting Fetterman if he won the primary.
On Sept. 6, Tyler told NBC News that “I expected this ad as sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.”
The ad was released at a time when Oz is getting more aggressive in his attacks on Fetterman, who has led in the polls and fundraising but continues to recover from a stroke he suffered just before the primary.
Fetterman has received sympathy during his recovery, but is facing increasing pressure to resume regular campaign activities and accept invitations to debate Oz.
Since having the stroke, Fetterman has given only three media interviews and has not held a press conference. He has struggled to speak clearly during his brief public appearances.
A Sept. 6 column written by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board questioned Fetterman’s ability to serve in the Senate if he cannot debate Oz because of issues related to the stroke.
Oz was joined by Toomey at a press conference in Philadelphia the same day.
A significant portion of that forum was dedicated to questions about Fetterman’s health and the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor’s refusal to debate Oz.
Last month, Oz formally challenged Fetterman to five Pennsylvania Senate debates leading up to Nov. 8, including a first event that would have been held on Sept. 6 in Pittsburgh.
The Oz campaign told Fetterman it would “pay for any additional medical personnel” he might need to have on standby, and that it would also allow him bathroom breaks, permit him to have notes, and wear an earpiece for communication with his staff.
Fetterman later rejected Oz’s offer for the first debate, telling reporters that his opponent’s campaign “made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor.”
Fetterman and his campaign have trolled Oz with social media memes, most of which call the celebrity surgeon a wealthy carpetbagger from New Jersey.
Democratic Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Hughes represents a west Philadelphia district and says Oz is “an out-of-touch millionaire.”
Hughes believes that black voters will cast their ballots for Fetterman.
“While Oz spends his time in his mansions in New Jersey, John Fetterman was the three-term mayor of Braddock, a majority black town, and has worked hand in hand with the black community for years,” Hughes said. “Black voters are excited to vote for John because of his long record, and because they know he will fight for them in Washington.”
