Members of the Harrisburg LGBTQ community are furious that charges have not been filed against a man who physically assaulted a member of their community at Sunday’s Equality March. The incident occurred on the Capitol steps, and photos of the unconscious victim and videos of the assault have gone viral within the Harrisburg community.
The older man who was acting as a lone counter-protester was standing on a concrete divider where the edge of the Capitol steps meets the grass. Members and allies of the LGBTQ community surrounded the man and used their flags and signs as a way to drown out his counter demonstration. A video that is right in front of the action shows the man walking along the concrete divider as the victim tries to snatch the sign out of his hands. The man, who is at least two to three times the size of the victim, swings his arm across his body and pushes the victim off of the concrete divider by their head.
According to those on the scene, the man who committed the assault may have been a leftover from Saturday’s March Against Sharia event. The man was allegedly shouting for more mass shootings that occurred at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida last year. The mass shooting was one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history and most of the victims were members of Orlando’s LGBTQ community.
After the assault occurred, one of the Capitol police officers who was present approached a member of the LGBTQ Center of Central Pennsylvania and threatened to charge the assault victim with robbery charges for attempting to grab the sign out of the man’s hands. Since the assault took place on the Capitol steps, the investigation into the incident falls under the purview of the Capitol Police. Department of General Services spokesman Troy Thompson stated that no charges have been filed against the man who assaulted the victim, but an investigation into the incident is still underway.
Here’s a video of the assault and photo:
