ODESSA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) 鈥� A Michigan homeowner has been charged with shooting and wounding an 84-year-old woman who was canvassing door-to-door against a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion in the state.
Richard Harvey was charged Friday on charges of felonious assault and reckless discharge of a firearm causing injury charges, Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler said in a statement.
Harvey surrendered to authorities Friday morning and was being held in the county jail.
at Harvey's home in Odessa Township, a community about 130 miles (210 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, and submitted charging recommendations to the prosecutor's office, Butler said.
Harvey was being represented by a public defender, who has not not responded to a message seeking comment.
The canvasser, Joan Jacobson, told investigators that she was asking a woman at the home to vote against Proposal 3 in November when she was told to leave. Jacobson told The Detroit News for a story Thursday that she was headed to her car when she 鈥渉eard a shot" and "felt some pain.鈥�
Jacobson said she then drove to a local police station and was later treated at a hospital.
Harvey, 74, told WOOD-TV that he shot Jacobson accidentally while she was arguing with his wife, and that he told Jacobson numerous times to leave their property.
Harvey told the television station that he fired a warning shot at a tree with his wife鈥檚 .22-caliber rifle. He said the woman continued 鈥渞anting and raving鈥� and waving a clipboard.
鈥淚鈥檓 thinking she鈥檚 going to smack Sharon with it,鈥� Richard Harvey said. 鈥淪o without thinking, I went to club it away with the rifle and my finger was still in the trigger guard. It went off and hit her.鈥�
Jacobson, a long-time volunteer for Right to Life of Michigan, said she never waved her clipboard.
The AP was unable to find a telephone number Friday for Harvey.
if Proposal 3 passes on Nov. 8. A 1931 state law makes it a crime to perform most abortions, but the law was suspended in May and a judge this week struck it down as unconstitutional.
The Associated Press
