The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help identifying people involved in reported assaults during President Donald Trump’s rally at Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio.
The sheriff’s office released photos of people it wants to speak with. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said some pictures are of victims and others are aggressors.
“Thankfully nobody sustained any major injuries in any of these minor assaults, but still it’s an assault and it can’t be tolerated,” Salazar said.
Several protesters were removed from the venue during the rally. People interviewed by KSAT said they were hit, shoved and punched as they were escorted out.
“We got assaulted,” Dominic Garza said.
Dominic Garza, Guliana Garza and Matthew Tabares said they attended the rally to protest Trump.
“I got pushed,” Dominic Garza said. “She (Guliana) got kneed in the back and shoved.”
Tabares said he was chanting “Free Palestine” when he was assaulted.
“I’m yelling out, ‘Free Palestine, Free Palestine,’ and that’s when I started getting attacked from a lot of Trump supporters,” Tabares said. “The woman, she was pushing me, she pushed me twice and then she threw a punch at me with her phone in her hand and then the man in the red hat, he threw a punch at me as well.”
Guliana Garza said a woman came up behind her and shoved her.
“I pushed her off a little,” she said. “She, like, full-on put her knee and her hands in my back and pushed me hard.”
Dominic Garza and Tabares said they were upset with how officers handled the situation.
“I was furious because I felt like nothing was done to the people that assaulted us,” Dominic Garza said.
According to Salazar, one person has been charged with a Class C misdemeanor assault. He said he expects additional charges in the coming days and weeks.
Thousands attended the president’s rally, and many recorded videos of the altercations. Witness Cynthia Garcia said she feared one woman was going to fall from the upper-level area in the coliseum.
“If they would have pushed that female in the blue sweater hard enough, she would have fallen straight down,” Garcia said. “I hope that with each rally that takes place, that nobody gets hurt.”
“Nobody should be attacked at an event,” witness Jonathan Cox said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of tension going on right now, but at the end of the day, this politics do not need to bring violence to each other in our city.”
The sheriff’s office is asking anyone who was assaulted or has information about the incidents to contact the agency.
“I am fully expecting other charges to come forth in the coming days and weeks,” Salazar said.
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