Army veteran, 26, is jailed for 10 years for shooting into a car full of black girls when it backed into a pick-up truck after a Trump rally in Iowa, injuring a 15-year-old

 A US Army veteran was sentenced on Monday to up to 10 years in prison for shooting into a car full of black teenage girls and wounding a 15-year-old in the leg after an Iowa rally for then-President Donald Trump.

Michael McKinney, 26, of St. Charles, pleaded guilty in June to downgraded charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury in the December 6, 2020, shooting after a Women For America First demonstration near the state Capitol in Des Moines.

Authorities said the girls in the car and rally participants were exchanging insults when the teenagers' car was surrounded by Trump supporters. The car backed up, hitting a pickup truck.

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Army veteran Michael McKinney, 26, was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury for shooting a 15-year-old girl

At that point, McKinney, a white man who was wearing body armor and carrying several firearms, shot into the car, hitting a then-15-year-old girl in the leg. He later told police he felt he was in danger and was protecting himself, according to court records.

In a statement read to the court Monday, the unnamed victim said she believed she was going to die that day and didn't know if she would be able to walk again, The Des Moines Register reported.

'I’m a 16-year-old young lady and would love to love myself, but it’s hard when I look at my scars and remember the events of Dec. 6, 2020,' the victim wrote.  

McKinney, who has been in custody since his arrest, apologized to the girl and said he used poor judgement that day.

'I want to truly and deeply express how sorry I am,' he said in court.

Authorities downplayed the political and racial context of the shooting, saying it grew out of a traffic dispute. 

Witnesses reported hearing the girls in the car calling Trump supporters in the crowd white supremacists, and rally participants asking the black teens if they were on welfare.  

The rally was sponsored by Women for America First, the pro-Trump group that later hosted the January 6 rally in Washington, DC, before the Capitol insurrection.

Trump supporters criticized authorities for charging McKinney, arguing that his shot protected rallygoers by scaring the car away and noting that McKinney frequented pro-police 'Back the Blue' rallies.

McKinney was initially charged with attempted murder but ultimately agreed to plead to lesser counts. Prosecutors asked Judge Scott Beattie to make the defendant's two 10-year terms run consecutively, which would have amounted to a sentence of up to 20 years.  

The judge, noting McKinney's lack of criminal history and honorable discharge from the military, ordered two sentences to run concurrently, for a maximum of 10 years. There is no mandatory minimum to serve before McKinney becomes eligible for parole.