Seaside Black Lives Matter March Leader Says Man Hit Him: Video

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — Participants in a Black Lives Matter march on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights on Saturday say an altercation that led to the arrest of one of the organizers was started by the man who was knocked down.

Jamaal Holmes, 28, of Toms River, was arrested Saturday and charged with simple assault in the incident, which ended with the 68-year-old man being knocked down and suffering a small cut on his head, Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman said.

Korman’s report said Holmes hit the man and knocked him down in the incident that happened about 3:30 p.m.

Holmes and witnesses say Holmes was defending himself from the man, who they say twice swatted at the mask and hit Holmes in the face before Holmes shoved him away. Holmes, who was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (associated with the 2005 film "V for Vendetta") was broadcasting the march on Facebook live at the time, and the video captures the incident.

As the group approaches the area of Dentato’s restaurant, Holmes can be heard chanting "Black Lives Matter." The man — who has not been identified — suddenly can be heard yelling at him to "take off the mask." The phone is jostled, and the man again yells, "take the mask off, you scumbag, take the mask off" and then there is a scuffle and a loud sound as the phone and the man land on the boardwalk, and people nearby react.

Holmes gave Patch permission to share the video and said the man hit him in the face twice while ripping the mask off his face. After Holmes pushes the man away, someone else yells, “that’s what happens when you lay your hands on someone,” and the group walks away.

Several witnesses told Patch there was no argument between Holmes and the man, just the attack, which they said was unprovoked.

“I was the first one to have an interaction with the man because I was at the front of the group,” said Boaz Matlack of Medford, one of the march participants. “He started yelling at me I said, “Thank you, sir, have a wonderful day,’ “ and kept walking.

Matlack said the man approached Holmes, who stepped back and tried to avoid him, but the man continued to approach Holmes and swiped at the mask, hitting Holmes in the face before Holmes pushed him away.

Aaliyah Castro of Toms River, who was marching farther back in the group of about 25 people, said the man had been heckling them for several minutes, but the group was ignoring him.

"We had people with opposing opinions yell towards us all day, it was expected and it’s totally fine," she said. The man got so close to her that he spit on her when he was screaming, Castro said, adding that she believes he was drunk because he smelled of alcohol.

"When he didn't get a reaction from myself and the few around me is when he moved to Jamaal," screaming at him and trying to knock off the mask. Castro said the man had a bicycle with him, and when Holmes pushed him away, the man stumbled back into his bicycle and fell. In the video he can briefly be seen laying next to the basket of his bike after his fall.

Alyson Hastings of Little Egg Harbor said she was right with Holmes at the time.

“The man grabbed at his mask and also pushed his (bull)horn into his face,” Hastings said, and added, “There were no arguments being made. The man was screaming and we were chanting black lives matter. The man was visibly drunk.”

A fourth witness, who was nearby but not part of the march, told Patch the man first approached the group near EJ’s Tap House, as the group was marching south toward The Sawmill, where the march had started.

"I saw him approach the front of the group and then he was walking with them. I thought he was part of the group," the witness, who asked that his name not be published, said. As the group reached Dentato’s, it split into two parts to go around the restaurant.

That’s when the witness could hear the group telling the man "Have a nice day," he said. "You could tell they just wanted him to go away."

The man instead stopped and turned around and started yelling at Holmes.

"He didn’t approach the guy, the guy approached him," the witness said. "The guy shoved the megaphone and put his hands on his face more than once."

"The first time the guy touched (Holmes) he didn’t retaliate," the witness said. "It took two or three times." After Holmes pushed the man, he walked away. "He didn’t taunt the guy, he just kept on his way and kept walking."

There was no police response to the incident. In the full, longer Facebook live video of the march that Holmes posted, the group walks the remainder of the way. Hastings said it was nearly an hour later, about 4:30 p.m., as she and Holmes and others were driving out of Seaside Heights, that her car was pulled over and Holmes was arrested.

Video Holmes shared of the arrest includes Seaside Heights police officers telling him there was a warrant for his arrest, but the news release on the incident made no mention of a warrant. Holmes was arrested by Detective Lawrence Mayberry, processed at the Seaside Heights Police Department and released. Patch has requested additional information about the warrant from police.

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