SUSPECT ARRESTED IN STABBING AT D.C. ELECTION PROTEST
Video shows man being beaten in confrontation
Authorities in Washington, D.C., said Sunday that they had arrested a man in connection with the stabbing of four people Saturday night as supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump clashed blocks from the White House.
The four were stabbed outside a bar at 11th and F streets northwest around 9 p.m. Saturday, the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement. A Washington resident, Phillip Johnson, 29, was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, a police spokesperson said. A police report said he had used a knife.
The confrontation was one of several angry encounters in Washington and in state capitals across the country Saturday as supporters of Trump, incensed by a Supreme Court ruling that further dashed the president’s hopes of overturning the results of the November election, clashed with counterprotesters.
In some places, those confrontations escalated into violence, including in Olympia, Wash., where police declared a riot and one person was shot.
The police incident report on the Washington, D.C., stabbing said officers who were working the demonstrations responded to reports of a fight outside Harry’s Bar on F Street Northwest, where they found four people with stab wounds. The Washington Post reported that the bar was being used Saturday as a gathering point for the Proud Boys, a right-wing group known for inciting violence at protests.
A photographer who witnessed the confrontation as he was covering the protests for The New York Times said it occurred after dozens of supporters of Trump, many of whom appeared to be members of the Proud Boys, gathered on the street outside Harry’s Bar. The photographer, Victor J. Blue, said some of the Trump supporters shouted and pointed at a Black man in dark clothes who was alone and against a wall.
At least three of the Trump supporters offered to let the man leave and implored the others to let him go in peace. After about a minute, as the man hesitated, more demonstrators closed in and began to punch and kick him, according to Blue and video footage of the confrontation that was shared by The New York Post.
At that point, the man pulled out a knife and began slashing with it as more demonstrators piled onto him. The man broke free twice, but was then grabbed and beaten again, the photographer said. Police officers intervened after the man was face down on the ground. Several protesters yelled that the man had a knife and had stabbed someone. Blue said that the man’s face was swollen and bloodied when police officers picked him up.
The victims were conscious and breathing when they were taken to a hospital, a Police Department spokesperson said Sunday. Douglas Buchanan, a spokesperson for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, said Sunday that their injuries were not life-threatening.
Police identified the men who had been stabbed as Franklin Gregory of McMinnville, Tenn.; Corey Nielsen of Robbinsdale, Minn.; Jeremy Bertino of Locust, N.C.; and Gregory Lyons, whose hometown was not released. Police said that Gregory identified Johnson as the man who had stabbed him.
Johnson could not be reached Sunday. It was not immediately clear if he was still in custody or whether he had a lawyer.
A Police Department spokesperson said that eight officers were injured during the protests. Two of those officers sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries and were also taken to hospitals, said Buchanan, the Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesperson.
In videos of a separate clash in Olympia, Wash., that were posted on social media, a single gunshot can be heard as counterprotesters advance on members of a pro-Trump group Saturday, including one person on a sidewalk who is waving a large Trump f lag. After the gunshot, one of the counterprotesters can be seen falling to the ground as others call for help. In another video, a man with a gun can be seen running from the scene and putting on a red hat.
Authorities said Sunday that they had arrested a 25year-old man from Shoreline, Wash., on a first-degree assault charge, said Chris Loftis, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol. Loftis did not release the man’s name Sunday.
The gunfire in Olympia came after supporters of Trump and counterprotesters gathered near the state Capitol on Saturday afternoon and clashed before the shooting.
Olympia police said there were four arrests and that four officers had been injured, according to CBS affiliate KIRO.