COLUMBIA, Pa. - Monday night, a fight broke out along Walnut Street in Columbia, Lancaster County. Witnesses say it started after a minor took a Confederate Flag off of the back of David Chohany's truck. Chohany told FOX43 it is his right to fly the flag. Chohany was arrested for allegedly pulling a knife out during the fight. The minor, who allegedly stole the flag, will face charges for taking it.
Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz says the town does not have a race issue.
"We don’t want those problems. We’ve never had those problems. I’m born and raised in Columbia. We’ve never had those kind of issues and we don’t want them and truthfully, we don’t want the kind of people that cause those problems," said Mayor Lutz.
He says since the fight there have been a few confrontations. He believes it is a result of people not letting things go.
"Typically when you have young folks in those types of situations; sometimes it results in an altercation," he said.
"I think both parties being charged is correct. If you’re going to go over and say something about the flag, stuff going to happen with that and then, if you’re going to pull out a knife then, that deserves to be charged too," said Victoria Altland.
Atland witnessed the whole fight and knows both parties. She says Chohany has been flying the flag for at least a month.
" To be honest at first I thought it was very childish and I still do. To be honest, it’s not the flag's fault, it’s the people who promote the flag," she said.
"Due to everything that’s going on in this country right now; there’s a lot of people with different beliefs that try to push their beliefs on other people. What it boils down to, if you don’t like a certain type of people or a certain type of religion, there’s no need to go around and flaunt it to people or yell things that are disrespectful to people," said Columbia resident, Eric Mays.
Everyone wants Columbia to go back to normal and wants people to respect each other.