Dad Shoots Son in Thanksgiving Brawl Over NFL Protests

Police in North Carolina say a man shot and wounded his son on Thanksgiving after a heated fight about NFL athletes kneeling during the national anthem, the AP reports. Cary police say 21-year-old Esteban Marley Valencia and his brother argued during dinner about the athletes' protest of racial injustice. Father Jorge Luis Valencia-Lamadrid, 51, told officers that Valencia, who had been drinking a large amount of alcohol throughout the day, then physically attacked his other son so he retrieved a shotgun and told him to leave, the News & Observer reports.

Valencia-Lamadrid said that instead of leaving, Valencia went in the backyard and started throwing patio furniture and other items. The father, who told officers he hadn't meant to harm his son, said he had been holding the gun by its pistol grip and squeezed the trigger when Valencia hit him in the face with a water bottle. Valencia was shot in the hand and leg. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. Valencia-Lamadrid was arrested and charged with one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. He was released from the Wake County jail Saturday on $50,000 bond.

(More North Carolina stories.)