Jacobson told investigators she was leaving their home when she was shot , The Detroit News reported Thursday. She said she was headed to her car when she saw Richard Harvey.
The judge who is overseeing the Richard Harvey shooting case is upset that the liberal Michigan man was not given a major felony charge in association with shooting pro-life grandma Joan Jacobson.
Joan Jacobson, a retired nurse, was visiting homes in Lake Odessa, Michigan to pass out literature opposing Proposal 3, which would legalize abortions up to birth in the state. After radical leftist Sharon Harvey got into an argument with Jacobson, her husband Harvey approached Jacobson with a gun and shot her as she was trying to leave the couple’s property.
Harvey was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, a minor felony; careless discharge of a firearm causing injury, a high court misdemeanor; and reckless use of a firearm, a misdemeanor. Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler said in a statement. Harvey surrendered to authorities and was being held in the county jail. The Michigan state police submitted charging recommendations to the prosecutor’s office.
But during a court hearing yesterday, Judge Raymond Voet wondered why there was no major felony charge.
“The court could ask why there isn’t a felony firearm charge as well, but that’s not my business,” he said.
Still, Judge Voet bound Harvey over for trial in Ionia County Circuit Court on all four charges and he “noted that he took into consideration Jacobsen’s age and stature (she is 4-foot 11-inches tall and weighs about 119 pounds) as factors when determining whether to bind over the matter for trial,” according to a local news report.
“It’s clear to me that Mr. Harvey did fire a warning shot to send a message to Ms. Jacobsen, and then he also shot her,” Voet said. “Thankfully he didn’t kill or paralyze her considering how close it was to her spine. We’re lucky that no one was more seriously hurt.
Sharon attended Wednesday’s court hearing, sitting behind her husband. Sharon was subpoenaed by the Ionia County Prosecutor’s Office, but she declined to waive spousal privilege and thus could not be forced to testify, according to Prosecutor Kyle Butler.
During the court hearing, Jacobson took the stand and described what happened.
“She got very angry and we had an exchange for about three to four minutes,” Jacobsen said. “The only thing I said to her was did she know it was going to amend the state Constitution? And she said she didn’t care. She was very upset, very agitated about it. She said, ‘you don’t have a right to be here, get off my porch, get off my property.’ I said ‘I do have a right to come and talk to you.’ I could be the mailman or the FedEx man. I wasn’t breaking any laws just coming to talk to her.
“Then I got off the porch and started walking back to my car,” Jacobsen said. “She was yelling at me as I was going down the sidewalk. I did ask her to stop yelling at me. She was behind me and then all of a sudden I realized she was very close to me in the grass while I was on the sidewalk. She was on her cellphone and she was saying she was going to call the police. I was thinking to myself, ‘call the police, I’m not doing anything wrong.’
“I turned and looked to see where she was and then I saw there was a man standing beside her,” she said. “It just happened so fast. I saw he had a gun, it was a long barrel. By the time it registered in my brain that there was a man with a gun, I heard a shot and I felt the pain. I said to myself ‘did he shoot me?’ I was just in shock and I just started proceeding to get to my car, which was not too far away at that time.”
She said she was lucky the shot didn’t kill or her injure her severely, noting that it narrowly missed her spine.
“The bullet went in and out,” she said. “They said it narrowly missed my spine, it went into the soft tissue.”
During the 911 call, Richard Harvey called Jacobson a “right-wing nut” during the conversation with the 911 dispatcher.
Harvey has admitted to firing a warning shot at Jacobson before shooting the elderly woman but claims it was an accident. Jacobson and her attorney say that’s completely false and point out that Richard Harvey had already fired a warning shot and Jacobson had turned away to leave the couple’s property in her vehicle.
Earlier in the call, Sharon Harvey makes the claim that Jacobson wouldn’t leave.
“Some lady over here wouldn’t leave my property and she needs to be arrested,” Harvey told a dispatcher. “She’s trying to have me sign a petition and I won’t do it and I told her to get off my property. And she wouldn’t go.
“My husband nicked her with a gun,” Sharon Harvey said — leaving the 911 dispatcher confused as to what happened and making it appear Richard never shot at Jacobson.
“My husband nicked her with a gun,” Sharon Harvey said — leaving the 911 dispatcher confused as to what happened and making it appear Richard never shot at Jacobson.
Later in the call, they Harveys finally admit Richard intentionally fired a warning shot and then shot her with the gun as she was leaving.
“Anything else you need to tell me?” the dispatcher asks.
“No, I’m sorry I shot her,” he said.
“And the next thing I knew, I heard a shot and I felt some pain,” Jacobson told the newspaper. “I was just stunned. The pain was in my back, and it was very severe.”
“I didn’t want to hurt her or him,” she said of the Harveys.
Meanwhile, in a press release, Jacobson’s attorney David Kallman says the Right to Life volunteer was intentionally shot during the September 20th incident and that Sharon Harvey was “hostile, belligerent, and antagonistic” when Jacobson came to her door to hand out information.
“She yelled and screamed at Ms. Jacobson and refused to listen to anything she tried to say. Ms. Jacobson, a five-foot tall, 84-year-old, 120 pound, retired nurse, never raised her voice, yelled at Ms. Harvey, or threatened her in any way,” Kallman says.
He said Jacobson began to leave when Mrs. Harvey, who daily posts virulent messages on social media attacking conservatives and promoting abortion, asked her to leave. Kallman said Jacobson never threatened the Harveys, never used her clipboard as a weapon as they contend and was shot “without any provocation.”
“Ms. Jacobson said she was ‘stunned’ upon realizing she had been shot and, fearing for her life, continued to her car and was able to drive to a nearby police station for help,” Kallman added. “She had turned to ask Ms. Harvey to stop yelling at her, and she was shot from the side as the bullet entered the top of her right shoulder and exited out her upper back near her spine.”
“Jacobson believed Richard Harvey intended to shoot her and that he might shoot her again if she did not leave the scene and get help,” he added.
The attorney says the Harveys didn’t even try t help Jacobson once they realized Richard had shot her and he said Sharon Harvey didn’t bother to call 911 for help even though she had a cell phone with her at the time.
“Neither Sharon nor Richard Harvey expressed any concern for Ms. Jacobson, offered her any assistance, or said one word to her after she was shot. Ms. Harvey, who had her cell phone in her hand as she had earlier threatened to call the authorities, made no offer to call 911 after Ms. Jacobson was shot. Ms. Jacobson made it to the police station and was transported to a hospital in Grand Rapids for treatment. She is recovering from her wounds,” he continued.
“There was no justification for shooting Ms. Jacobson,” Kallman said in his statement. “Mr. Harvey admitted firing a warning shot, so he knew the gun was loaded when he pointed it at my client. If it was truly an accident, why did neither of the Harvey’s express any remorse or even offer to assist Ms. Jacobson or call 911 immediately after shooting her? The answer is obvious: it was not an accident and Mr. Harvey should be held accountable.”
Anna Visser, Right to Life of Michigan Communications Director, condemned the shooting.
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“No one should fear violence while peacefully exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech. This 84-year old woman is hardly imposing, standing about 5-feet tall. The idea that shooting this woman is at all excusable is a dangerous claim for Americans across the country who engage in peaceful door-to-door canvassing,” she said.
Visser points out that while Harvey publicly claims the shooting was an “accident,” “Sharon Harvey’s public social media posts raise questions about the motive.”
“Mrs. Harvey’s Facebook page reveals very strong opinions on abortion, the issue the volunteer was canvassing about, and vitriol for prolifers and anyone who disagrees with her. Her extensive history of demonstrated hatred for people who disagree with her draws her account into question,” she said.
Right to Life of Michigan adds:
Why was a gun pulled on an short, 84-year-old lady?
A look through Sharon Harvey’s public posts on her Facebook page is a sad tour of vitriolic rhetoric being repeated day, after day, after day, for years on end. This is a person who believes—like President Biden and Governor Gretchen Whitmer—that people like the victim who see things differently on abortion or other issues are a grave threat to the republic, who if not confronted and stopped will be shipping people off to concentration camps, will forever end democracy, and let women die left and right because of ectopic pregnancies. She believes people like the victim are basically the Taliban.
What could have stayed a heated political discussion that ended peacefully and was totally forgotten years down the road by these ladies instead culminated with pulling a gun on a small, elderly woman and shooting her. This recklessly irresponsible rhetoric must end, and it must end now before more people are harmed.
The campaign of violence and threats against prolife pregnancy centers has come to Michigan and affected our own organization. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been silent about these terrorist activities, except to continue to repeat “fight like hell” to her followers over and over and over. Governor Whitmer has so far been silent about the shooting and attacks on pregnancy centers.
If Governor Whitmer cannot condemn this ongoing campaign of violence or the climate of violent rhetoric she contributes to daily, she should resign in shame as the leader of our state.
Enough is enough.
LifeNews Note: Photo credit to Elizabeth Waldon of the Daily News.
