Wil Courtney| Lafayette Journal & Courier
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- Witnesses provided conflicting accounts of the incident, with some stating the firearm was pointed at protesters while police claim it was not intentionally pointed at anyone.
- Lafayette police are urging anyone with firsthand information or video footage of the incident to come forward as the investigation remains ongoing.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Lafayette police are calling on the public to provide more information about the Saturday incident that ended with a man pulling out an assault rifle near the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.
The man, who has not been charged with a crime, parked and exited his vehicle on 3rd Street about noon Saturday, approaching and yelling at protesters for blocking the road, according to eyewitnesses that day and a video recorded by the Lafayette Journal & Courier. As he continued to shout, a man in a black sweatshirt drew near to the man who left his truck and allegedly head-butted him, causing his nose to bleed.
“Officers arrived on scene following reports of a verbal altercation between a protest participant and a passing motorist,” police said in a news release Sunday. “Witnesses stated that the exchange escalated when the protester made physical contact with the motorist, who then retrieved a firearm from his vehicle and walked through the protest area.”
Lafayette police determined in their initial findings “the firearm was not knowingly and intentionally” pointed at anyone, and “the presence of a firearm in a tense, crowded public space understandably caused alarm amongst community members.”
But Nick Ault, a helper with the event, told the Journal & Courier the gun was pointed at his stomach at one point during the protest in downtown Lafayette.
“I was OK until I realized he pointed the gun at my husband. In that moment, I started panicking for a half-second,” Erika Allen, event organizer and Ault’s wife, said Saturday. “I said to (the man with the gun), ‘That’s my husband. Don’t point the gun at him. Please put it down.’ When the police officer told me he didn’t believe me, that’s when I got really upset.”
The man was initially detained but was released after Lafayette police determined that he did not, that he instead retrieved the gun in self-defense.
On Sunday, during continuing unrest on social media sites, Lafayette police released the statement saying they are continuing to review video and other evidence of the event.
“The investigation remains ongoing, and LPD urges individuals who directly witnessed the incident or have firsthand information to come forward,” the release said.
Meanwhile, an organizer of Saturday's rally, Stacy Bogan, created a gofundme site to raise money for legal fees for the man police arrested for head-butting the man with the gun. Jeremy Marks, 36, was arrested on a preliminary battery charge and bonded out of the Tippecanoe County Jail. "Help Jeremy Cover Legal Fees" has raise $9,400 as of 7 p.m. Sunday.
Readers can provide videos to the Lafayette police at https://lafayettepdin.evidence.com/axon/community-request/public/2504050107.
Estimates were that nearly 1,000 people showed up Saturday at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse as part of the national "Hands Off! Mass Mobilization" movement involving cities around the country.
