Police continue stabbing probe
Fight allegedly between members of extremist groups
A Trump supporter attending a rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday was stabbed multiple times and underwent emergency surgery to repair an eviscerated bowel at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
The suspect, 37-year-old Alexander S. Contompasis of Rensselaer, is accused of stabbing two people during a melee that erupted in East Capitol Park between a group that gathered to support President Donald J. Trump and a smaller group of counter-protesters who showed up, several of them allegedly armed with weapons.
Contompasis was arraigned Thursday morning in Albany City Court on charges that include firstdegree assault, a high-level felony. City Court Judge Holly A. Trexler set bail at $30,000 cash or $60,000 bond.
State Police recovered the knife they suspect was used in the stabbing from Contompasis’s vehicle, which was parked near the Capitol. They also were searching his vehicle on Thursday. Several other people were charged with minor offenses and given appearance tickets, including two counterprotesters that police said were armed with expandable batons.
Melissa A. Carpinello, an attorney for Contompasis, said the victims in the stabbing identified themselves to police as members of the “Proud Boys” and that her client was defending himself from an attack. The FBI has labeled Proud Boys a rightwing extremist group.
The group that gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday, in coordination with a major rally in Washington, D.C., included about 35 Trump supporters, including at least three individuals police identified as associated with Proud Boys.
“I believe that when the facts of this case come out, it will show that my client was defending himself from an unprovoked attack by self-identified Proud Boys, a radical racist organization,” Carpinello said.
Contompasis has several posts on his Facebook page referencing “Antifa,” an unstructured web of antifascist groups and individuals that have been described by the FBI as violent anarchists. In a photo posted on his Facebook page, Contompasis has a caption referring to himself as an “Antifa protester from Albany” and another that says “Antifa forever.” In another photo, he is holding a rifle and has a large hunting knife strapped to his side; the photo carries the caption “I am Antifa.”
Carpinello declined to comment on any connection her client may have to Antifa.
On his Facebook page, Contompasis has a photo of himself holding a huntingstyle rifle with a scope. He also has several politically charged comments and photographs of Antifa Tshirts that he wrote in posts that he had purchased.
“Mike pence is not going to frame a leftist for assassinating Trump, declare martial law, cancel the presidential inauguration and round up the resistance in Antifa detention centers for summary execution. He wants to he just can’t,” he wrote in one post.
In another post, Contompasis, who goes by “Alexander Stokes” on Facebook — Stokes is his middle name — posted another excerpt stating that he had been “charged with rioting ” while covering Trump’s 2017 inauguration as a “reporter.”
One of the pro-trump supporters who was at the protest outside the state Capitol was ticketed for harassment after he allegedly struck a woman in the face with a flag stick.
State Police recovered video footage that captured what unfolded.
One of the two people transported to Albany Medical Center with stab wounds suffered an eviscerated bowel and underwent surgery. The second person was stabbed in the leg and had injuries that officials described as not serious.
That second victim, a 35-year-old Rotterdam man, gave police a statement at the hospital acknowledging his role with a local chapter of the Proud Boys and describing in detail the events leading up to the stabbings.
“I am a member of the Proud Boys which is a group of men who believe in the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution and who believe in the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property,” his statement reads.
He told investigators he arrived late for the “Stop the Steal” pro-trump rally and noticed six people were in the East Capitol Park that he recognized as Antifa members. He said the Antifa supporters were yelling at the Trump supporters, and it escalated until skirmishes broke out.
The man told police that Contompasis, who was wearing a purple shirt and aviator sunglasses, reached into his pocket as a second skirmish broke out that started when an apparent Antifa supporter punched one of the Proud Boy members in the face.
“I saw him reach into his right front pant pocket. I saw a pinkish/red colored handle and realized that he was reaching for a knife,” his statement reads. “I grabbed his left arm and said, ‘Don’t stab anybody.’ He said: ‘I will stab someone.’”
Seconds later, as the Rotterdam man fought with another apparent Antifa supporter, he said the man later identified by police as Contompasis ran over and struck him in the chest and he also felt something in his leg. He later discovered that he had knife wounds to his torso and leg.
The second victim, whose assault was also captured on video, was stabbed in the left side of his lower abdomen.
As police ran toward the violence, the Rotterdam man said he was sitting on a bench examining his wounds when another Antifa supporter who had been involved in the fighting approached him.
He told police the man stated to him: “I’m coming for you. I know who you are. I know where you live.”
The entire protest had been monitored by undercover police who know Contompasis and other counter-protesters, and had witnessed them allegedly instigating the confrontation with the Trump supporters.
The violence at the state Capitol took place as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was giving a coronavirus briefing inside the building and as the Legislature was beginning its 2021 session.