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Protestor attacked during city hall protest

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OLYMPIA –– A video posted on Facebook shows a man being beaten over the head during a protest outside Olympia City Hall on July 12, during which he bled profusely before fainting and receiving medical care. 

The man was one of the protestors at the demonstration. Dozens of agitated demonstrators participated in the protest outside the state capitol’s city hall on Sunday, blocking traffic being redirected through the Meineke parking lot and out onto Cherry Street.

Black Lives Matters protestors seemed to be redirected traffic, while counter-demonstrators on the other side of the street tried to help re-direct motorists onto a neighboring street. 

Olympia Police Officers were standing by and didn’t start responding to skirmishes between protestors until after the man sustained a head injury.  In one part of the video, someone wearing a BLM t-shirt begins to administer first aid to the injured man. 

“He was in a screaming match and somebody sprayed him in the face with mace,” said Peter Diaz, another protestor. “He threw a punch at the guy who maced him and walked off by himself. Several people held him and three other people began beating him in the head.” 

Diaz also told JOLT the people who beat the man yelled that they were going to kill him.

In a post on his Facebook page, the injured man said he is back home and doing well.

“I got pepper sprayed and then beat with a baton but I’m all good,” he wrote on Facebook. 

In an earlier post, he posted a picture of himself seemingly on a gurney in the back of an ambulance and wearing a neckbrace. He wrote in that post, “Gotta love downtown oly.” 

An officer with the Olympia Police Department confirmed the attacker was Shaelyn A. Reed, 20, who was arrested on charges of assault. This story will be updated. 

Olympia, Olympia City Hall, Olympia Police Department, protest, rally, demonstration, Shaelyn Reed, protest attack

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