LAPD seeks info on stabbing suspect at anti-vaccination protest

An anti-vaccine rally at Los Angeles City Hall turned violent
Saturday, with one person stabbed and a reporter saying he was
assaulted, according to police and protesters on the scene.
A
crowd of several hundred people, many holding American flags and signs
calling for “medical freedom,” had descended on City Hall around 2 p.m.
for the planned rally. A few dozen counterprotesters had amassed on 1st
Street near the former offices of the L.A. Times before the clash.
A
fight erupted on the corner of 1st and Spring streets shortly after
2:30 p.m., as counterprotesters in all black and anti-vaccine
demonstrators draped in American flag garb and Trump memorabilia traded
punches and threw things at one another. It was not immediately clear
how the fight started, though each side quickly blamed the other.

An LAPD officer tries to stop the bleeding of a man stabbed in Saturday’s clash downtown.

Police are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect in an alleged stabbing at Saturday’s anti-vaccine protest near Los Angeles City Hall.

The stabbing occurred at about 2 p.m. near First and Spring streets, and the suspect used a knife or similar sharp object to stab a man in the upper right chest area, police said in a statement.

The Los Angeles Fire Department took the victim to a local hospital in critical condition, police added.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Area detectives are seeking information about the suspect, who appears in photos provided by the department to be a white or Hispanic man with long blonde hair.

In the photos, the suspect is wearing a black bandana, black hoodie, black skinny jeans with holes in the knees and white tennis shoes, police said.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it was “monitoring” the protest on City Hall’s south lawn after violence erupted. Authorities said no arrests had been made, and an investigation was ongoing as the person stabbed was taken to the hospital.

Video captured an extended brawl, with people kicking, shoving and punching one another. What precipitated the violence is unclear, but it unfolded as renewed pandemic restrictions and government pushes for immunization against the coronavirus spark fierce divides. The Los Angeles Times reported that the fighting broke out between those protesting vaccine mandates and black-clad counterprotesters as several hundred gathered at an afternoon rally for “medical freedom.”

“Unmask them! Unmask them all!” some yelled during the chaos, directing profanity at “antifa,” a reference to a loosely knit group of far-left activists.

A man in a “Protect the 2nd Amendment” skull-and-cross-bones shirt walked by with what appeared to be blood all over one side of his head as others chanted “USA! USA!” and police tried to restore order. At one point, video shows people kicking someone down on the ground. Some counterprotesters sprayed mace, the Times said.

A reporter for NPR station KPCC, Frank Stoltze, said he was shoved, kicked and had his glasses “ripped off of my face” by people at the protest, which he also described as supportive of former president Donald Trump and an effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

“Something happened to me today that’s never happened in 30 [years] of reporting,” he tweeted.

“I’m mad but fine,” he added later.

Authorities have not said who was involved in the stabbing, and the Los Angeles police did not immediately respond to questions Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, Margaret Stewart, said the department received a call about a stabbing at 2:34 p.m. on the block where City Hall stands and transported one patient for treatment. Stewart said Sunday morning that she could not provide any information about the patient’s condition, which police have not specified.

A Los Angeles Times photographer captured authorities trying to stop a man’s bleeding as he lay on the ground, his hand on his head.

Signs photographed at Saturday’s protest claimed that the coronavirus vaccine uses “risky new mRNA technology,” even as public health leaders emphasize that the vaccine has been proven safe and has only rare side effects. Messenger RNA technology had been studied and developed for years before its use in coronavirus vaccines. Other signs called to “STOP THE MANDATE” and said that “COERCION IS NOT [CONSENT].”

Los Angeles officials have imposed some of the country’s most stringent masking and vaccination rules as governments respond to surging coronavirus infections and hospitalizations fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. L.A. County’s decision last month to reimpose an indoor mask mandate for its 10 million residents regardless of vaccination status was one of the earliest significant rollbacks of the nation’s reopening. And the Los Angeles City Council voted last week to require proof of coronavirus vaccination for anyone entering an indoor public space.

“Your decision to remain unvaccinated doesn’t just affect you,” L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez tweeted after the measure passed.

Martinez voiced dismay this weekend at the violence outside City Hall.

“Not wearing a mask and being anti-vax isn’t patriotism — it’s stupidity,” she said, according to local media. “We have to be able to have differences of opinions without resorting to violence.”

ther major cities, including New York, New Orleans and San Francisco, also have said they will require vaccination for entry into indoor settings such as bars, restaurants and gyms. Employers as well as government agencies have increasingly turned to vaccine mandates as more than 40 percent of Americans have yet to get a first shot, months into intensive vaccination campaigns, including some that tried to lure people with free food and multimillion-dollar lotteries.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Central Area Detective Cheng at 213-996-1248. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247).

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to lacrimestoppers.org.