A MAGA supporter was filmed pulling out and aiming a handgun at a group of Anti-Trump demonstrators during a confrontation in suburban Seattle on Saturday.
The incident happened at around 3:30pm local time when a group of anti-Trump activists - consisting mostly female teens and young adults - gathered in Woodinville to oppose another group that had been rallying in support of the president at an intersection.
A video captured from the scene shows the man, dressed in a Trump hat and brown jacket, brandishing the firearm and holding it up parallel to his head towards the rival crowd, warning them to ‘get the f*** away’.
A woman is seen immediately running towards the man, and placing her arms on his as she attempts to lead him away from the crowd.
The situation escalated when someone flung a bucket of liquid at the man, Sgt. Ryan Abbott of the King County Sheriff's Office told the Seattle Times.
A police investigation has been launched after a Trump supporter was filmed pulling out and aiming a handgun during at a group of demonstrators opposed to the president during a confrontation in suburban Seattle on Saturday
The man, who has not yet been named, continues to point the gun at the crowd as he’s ushered away.
The man, who has not yet been named, continues to point the gun at the crowd as he’s ushered away.
Protesters are heard calling out asking the man, ‘what’s your name’ and threatening to call the police.
Under the procession of heckles, the man is heard exclaiming to the woman filming the video that the group ‘threw’ something on him.
‘It’s f***ing water, you snowflake,’ the woman responds. ‘It’s water.’
Police were called and officers retrieved a five-gallon bucket from the scene that was found to have fluid inside, though its contents have not yet been identified.
The man who drew the gun remained nearby and told officers that his eyes were burning, Sgt. Abbott said.
Witness Mandy Luttinen, who was part of the anti-Trump group, told the Seattle Times that the incident happened as the pro-Trump group walked past the young protesters on their way to a parking lot.
The opposing events appeared to be winding down in the moments prior, she added.
Luttinen said that the bucket was thrown by a man who was not part of the original demonstration. The assailant reportedly threw the contents of the bucket over the man with the gun before fleeing the scene on foot.
The bucket appeared to be holding water tainted with mud or tobacco juice, she said.
Police were called an officers retrieved a five-gallon bucket from the scene that was confirmed to have fluid inside, though its contents have not yet been identified. The man who drew the gun remained nearby and told officers that his eyes were burning, Sgt. Ryan Abbott of the King County Sheriff's Office said
The video of the tense exchange was later posted to Twitter by user @JustABitAlien, who said she didn’t film the footage but is shown in it.
She wrote: ‘Next time a man says women are fragile, show him this video of a man pulling a gun on some teens after a stranger splashed him with dirty water.’
The user claimed that the man claimed to police he thought the liquid was acid and ‘cried self-defense’.
‘I heard him go from “spit on me” to “he threw chewing tobacco on me” to “it was poop” to “well it could have been acid” in the span of seconds,’ the twitter user claimed.
The user then uploaded a second video of the man who brandished the gun, showing him and a female shoving an unarmed teen girl with his weapon still drawn.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
A second video of the man showed him and a female shoving an unarmed teen girl with his weapon still drawn
The teen girl had been stood on the side of the road, holding a Biden sign and was appearing to film the man when he approached her and pushed her
The teen girl had been stood on the side of the road, holding a pro-Biden sign and appeared to be filming the man when he approached her and pushed her.
The man with the gun was not arrested or cited for either of the incidents caught on camera.
The police are, however, searching for the suspect who allegedly threw the bucket of liquid.
Officers spoke with witnesses from both sides, and detectives are gathering surveillance video from buildings, according to Abbott.
‘There’s a lot of different stories [and] we’re trying to figure out what happened.’
Earlier in the afternoon, the two groups had been protesting peacefully on opposing corners of Northeast 175th Street and 140th Avenue Northeast.
The groups chanted as passing drivers honked to support either political side, witnesses said.
But the longer the two demonstrations went on, the more the tension reportedly built.
Some teens twerked and flipped the middle finger at the Trump supporters, while both sides hurled insults, according Luttinen.
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