Details Emerge On Violent Protest Near Austin Capitol

AUSTIN, TX — Austin police are slowly releasing more details related to a protest turned violent near the state Capitol over the weekend during which a protester is accused of having pointed a loaded gun at officers.

At the request of Patch, Austin police released booking photos of four suspects arrested during a weekend melee pitting a group protesting the existence of so-called "sanctuary cities" against counter-protesters decrying xenophobia.

According to an Austin Police Department spokeswoman on Monday, both the Texas Department of Public Safety and the local force made arrests during the dual protests. Officers from both agencies were on hand to ensure the peace when a scuffle broke out.

Previous story: Austin Police Say Protester Aimed Loaded Gun At Them

Robert Patrick Hewitt, 29, is alleged to have pointed a loaded handgun at officers who were on the ground some 15 feet away trying to arrest another person, according to an arrest affidavit. It's unclear from official sources what group Hewitt belonged to in the gathering at Wooldridge Park.

However, members of the opposing camp identified Hewitt as a white nationalist while alleging he was chanting "Charlottesville 2!" as part of his demonstration. The context, members of the anti-fascist group recount on their website, was tantamount to a death threat. The reference to the Virginia city refers to an August "Unite the Right" rally organized by white supremacists during which a counter-protester was killed when a nationalist rammed his car into a crowd.

Also in their own recounting of incident, members of the anti-fascist group say Hewitt was pointing his gun at the counter-protesters although he was ultimately arrested by police for pointing the firearm at officers. Hewitt now is being detained at the local jail on a $40,000 bond, charged with the first-degree felony of aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon.

In their website recap, anti-fascist Red Guards Austin members also detail how outnumbered the white nationalist group was compared to their numbers, the latter managing to gather just about a dozen participants to showcase their cause. That would seem to parallel the live narration of a white nationalist on the scene who furiously tried to recruit more like-minded members to arrive at the scene while filming his adversaries from a safe distance (See: "Austin Police Say Protester Aimed Loaded Gun At Them," Dec. 10).

An inquiry from Patch to the APD also yielded another bit of information: Hewitt was arrested by the local department while four others were arrested by DPS. A group calling itself "Defend Our Hoodz" has identified the four others arrested as "comrades" to their anti-fascist cause. A fundraiser has since been launched to help defray their legal costs, at last check collecting $1,405 of a $5,000 goal.

The four — arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety officers — are: Quintin Hatt, 27, charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer, a first-degree felony; Christopher Nolan Eberly, 27, charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant, a Class B misdemeanor; Timothy Zane Shirley, 22, also charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant; and Aaron John Brian, 28, charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer, a first-degree felony.

White nationalists who eked out their small protest Saturday were decrying so-called "sanctuary cities," an increasingly polarizing issue with its din aided by base-energizing rhetoric by conservative politicians. The governor of one of the nation's most culturally diverse states, Greg Abbott has nonetheless aggressively championed for an end to "sanctuary cities" — municipalities perceived to be too welcoming of immigrants and lax in cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in rooting out undocumented immigrants.

It was Abbott who made eradicating "sanctuary cities" a priority in the last legislative session, yielding Senate Bill 4, one of the nation's strictest measures aimed at undocumented immigrants. The bill calls for fines and even jail time for elected officials and police chiefs seen as too soft on immigration enforcement while giving police greater leeway in inquiring about people's documentation status through the course of their work.

Related story: Texas Governor Signs Far-Reaching Anti-Immigration Law On Facebook Live

At the federal level, Donald Trump continually uses the issue of "sanctuary cities" as a rallying cry at public events or Twitter to fire up his base.

The upshot: The issue locally has heightened tension between both sides of the ideological divide, as illustrated dramatically during Saturday's violence at what used to be peaceful gatherings. Three officers reportedly sustained cuts and lacerations as they tried to effect arrests. A comment from a Patch reader on a previous story on the dual protests — calling for anti-fascists he termed "terrorists" to be shot on sight (since deleted by the administrator given its violent suggestion) — further illustrates the height of emotion the issue has taken on locally and elsewhere.

The APD released booking photos of the four anti-fascist protesters at the request of Patch. A police spokeswoman said the department would retrieve Hewitt's booking photo later on Monday.