St. Albans police arrested a demonstrator at a Black Lives Matter protest Tuesday evening in St. Albans, accusing him of threatening a counter-protester with a gun.
Police say Christopher Reynolds, 22, of Milton, approached a “passerby” who was saying “All Lives Matter” and told the man to “do something or I certainly will” while holding the grip of his gun, which he was carrying on his hip.
Reynolds, who is being charged with aggravated assault, denied making that statement. He and other protesters who were there say the man had aggressively crossed the street to the park where the protest was happening. The man was screaming “All Lives Matter” and was flipping off protesters, Reynolds said.
“At that point, I thought he was going to start swinging,” Reynolds said. “He was just being generally aggressive. And he said, are you going to shoot me? And I said, if I have to.”
The action in St. Albans follows protests around the country after the death of George Floyd last week. Floyd was killed during an arrest involving four Minneapolis police officers who have since been charged in the case.
St. Albans poice say the incident happened at approximately 6:41 p.m., and Reynolds was taken into custody and processed before being released on a citation to appear in Franklin County Superior Court for aggravated assault.
Reynolds confronted the man after the man said “All Lives Matter” to the protesting crowd, St. Albans police said in a press release.
“An argument ensued and the victim crossed Main Street and entered the park to debate the issue further,” police said.
“The victim’s statement and video evidence obtained at the scene shows the victim being confronted by Christopher Reynolds (Protestor), who verbally threatened the victim by saying, ‘do something or I certainly will,’ while approaching the victim with his hand on the grip of his gun, which was being openly carried on his hip,” according to police.
The incident was caught on camera by Local 22 and Local 44 reporter Devin Bates.
Angela Thibodeau of Swanton organized the rally at St. Albans’ Taylor Park, which drew around 150 people, according to the St. Albans Messenger.
Thibodeau said that leading up to the protest, people had been posting pictures of their guns on Facebook with threats toward the protesters.
A small group of counter-protesters stood across the street from the protest and had been yelling “All Lives Matter,” Thibodeau said. Some of those individuals were also armed, Thibodeau said, and Reynolds was not a threat to anyone.
“The people tried saying that one of the protesters had pulled a gun out on them, so they went over and reviewed the video,” she said. “He put his hand on his hip, did not have it out and was not threatening people.”
Paige Lytch, another protester, said the man had aggressively approached a group of teenage protesters after yelling “I’ll (mess) you up, I don’t care about your Black Lives Matter” when Reynolds addressed the man.
“[Reynolds] did not threaten anyone, he did not pull his gun, he did not do anything but have his hand near there,” she said. “For anyone that carries, that is a natural reaction when you are being threatened.”
Reynolds said he didn’t understand how his behavior constituted aggravated assault, and said he felt it was important to speak out against police brutality.
“We’ve been having to fight for this stuff from the ‘60s, people are still getting killed for no reason,” he said.
