Witnesses: Man with gun threatened protesters in Lafayette anti-Trump rally; police: man was defending self

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Bystanders at an anti-Trump rally in downtown Lafayette on Saturday said a man angry about traffic jumped out of a truck, pulled on a Trump shirt, retrieved a gun from his vehicle and threatened protesters before being handcuffed and driven away by Lafayette police.

A police spokesman said later Saturday that officers determined the man did not point the gun at anyone and he was later released.

Hundreds showed up today at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse as part of a national “Hands Off! Mass Mobilization” movement involving cities around the country today. The Lafayette event began at noon.

But several protesters described the incident in which the man apparently became angry when the crowd was crossing the street and not allowing him to turn at the intersection at Third Street. They said after the man jumped out of his truck, he allegedly fought a man on the corner of Columbia and North 3rd streets. The man who left his truck appeared to be head-butted by a protester. After that, he went back into his truck and appeared to reveal an assault rifle before heading into the protest.

“It feels like our country is full of pro-Trump stuff and pro-Trump people, and so we feel isolated and alone, and so the goal is that the people see they’re not alone,” event organizer Erika Allen, 40, told the Journal & Courier.

The afternoon was far from calm, though. Cars honked alongside the chants of protesters. Cheers of “protect the constitution” and “no justice, no peace,” echoed high throughout the streets of downtown Lafayette.

Just 10 minutes into the event, Allen stopped in the middle of the conversation with a reporter while looking at the corner of 3rd and Columbia streets.

“(The reporter) and I were talking and I look down and see a truck had stopped in the road and a man jumped out and looked like he was coming to confront protesters,” she said later. “That’s when I ran down there. He got in the face of a trans woman standing there who was recording him … then he got into the face of one of my other safety marshals, who is a short woman.”

In a video the reporter shot, a bearded man in a gray sweatshirt and a white “Make America Great Again” hat stopped at the corner, pointing and yelling at protesters, all while one protester in a black sweatshirt grew closer and closer, yelling in the other man’s face. In the man’s truck, a woman pushed a megaphone out the window.

“A gentleman (presumably the man in the black sweatshirt) didn’t like that he was yelling at women, so he came and interceded. He got between us and the guy who was yelling and said, ‘These are women! These are women! You can’t get in their faces like that! Who do you think you are!’” Allen said.

The man in the gray sweatshirt appears to lean into the protesters pushing him away, still pointing. The man in the black sweatshirt pushes back with his chest, and as one protest organizer grabs the shoulders of the man with the black sweatshirt, he head-butts the man with the MAGA hat.

He grabs his nose and blood is visible on his fingers. He reels back and walks to his car, according to the video the reporter took. The other passenger of the truck opens the door and yells something about the Second Amendment, “Touch my husband, bitch. Touch him!”

Allen raises her hands in front of the protesters and tries to direct them back onto the street. But the man with the MAGA hat returns holding what appears to be, an assault rifle. By this point, the man with the black sweatshirt was not with the rest of the crowd. Allen said he “took off running” after the head-butt.

Protesters yell “911!” and “He’s got a gun!” He walks around to the other side of the street, yelling about the protesters blocking traffic. Blood from his nose is visible, now walking through the crowd. Stacey Bogan, another event organizer, said organizers immediately called police.

At 12:18, about five minutes after the man with the black sweatshirt struck the man with the MAGA hat, the man returned to his vehicle as police arrived. The man with the MAGA hat was detained, placed in the back of a police vehicle and driven from the scene.

Nate Ault, Allen’s husband, said the gun was pointed at his stomach at some point during the altercation.

“I was OK until I realized he pointed the gun at my husband. In that moment, I started panicking for a half-second,” Allen said. “I said, ‘That’s my husband. Don’t point the gun at him. Please put it down.’ When the police officer told me he didn’t believe me, that’s when I got really upset.”

But police determined protester in the wrong

But in a news release about 4 p.m. Saturday, Lafayette police said the altercation did not happen the way protesters described it.

“During the event, an adult male driver attempted to make a lawful turn at the intersection of Third Street andColumbia Street when his path was obstructed by protesters standing in the roadway. A verbal altercationensued between the driver and protesters,” the release said. “The situation escalated when the driver exited his vehicle and was subsequently pushed and battered by individuals in the crowd. The driver then retrieved a firearm from his vehicle in what he described as an act of self-defense.

“He did not discharge the weapon and promptly returned it to his truck. Shortly after, a male protester approachedthe driver and head-butted him, causing injury,” police said. “Lafayette Police officers detained the driver due to reports that he had allegedly pointed the firearm at protesters. Officers conducted a thorough investigation and determined that the driver did not point the firearm at anyone and did not commit a crime, the driver was then released.”

Police are now seeking the man who head-butted the driver, the release said, and ask those with information to contact them at 765-807-1200.

Hundreds swarm the courthouse

As raindrops began to fall, more people continued to arrive. Police officers instructed protesters off the steps and grass surrounding the building. There was little space to move, and slowly, protesters moved to hold signs on the other side of the street.

Sherry Shipley, a 62-year-old, held a small, upside-down American flag. Being American is deeply important to her identity, she said, and she is beginning to not recognize the country she is living in.

“I was adopted, and I never knew my birth family … but I always knew I was an American,” she said, choking up a bit. “This is so deeply personal for me, because our identity is slipping away.”

At the front of the courthouse, a small white tent hosted several musicians and speakers, starting chants and playing patriotic ballads. In one instance, two musicians played “Yankee Doodle” on a flute-like instrument.

Alex Chavez, a 22-year-old senior who organized the protest that disrupted Gov. Mike Braun’s trip to Lafayette, spoke in front of the protesters that evening, starting a chant of “no justice, no peace.” She said, two of her former teachers came up to her and congratulated her, saying they were very proud of her.

Saturday’s protest drew even more attention.

“We were expecting between 400 and 600. I’ve heard that there’s close to 900 to 1,000 throughout the whole time we’ve been here,” Allen said.

But the event ended about an hour and a half early — because she didn’t want anything else to happen.

“Democracy is not gone, you are not alone,” she said about the day’s message. “The majority of the people feel the same way that you do. That this is not OK. We’re not gonna stand by and just let things happen without saying something.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Witnesses: Man with gun threatened protesters in Lafayette anti-Trump rally; police: man was defending self