A middle-aged white man was attacked during Saturday's protest in Salt Lake City, after he began threatening to shoot demonstrators with a hunting bow.
Video of the incident showed the civilian brandishing the weapon as he stood outside his vehicle arguing with protesters. The woman behind the camera can be heard shouting, "You call yourself American?," to which the man responded. "Yes, I'm American! All lives matter!"
We then see the man point the hunting bow at several individuals moments before he is ambushed.
KSLTV reports SLC police officers managed to pull the man away from the crowd and detain him. It was reportedly at this time the crowd began smashing his car windows and flipping it over before setting it on fire.
The bloodied-faced man gave an on-camera interview moments after the incident and gave a much different account from what was captured on camera.
"First, I got beat up when I yelled 'All Lives Matter.' Then I pulled out weapons and I got beat up some more," said the man, who identified himself as Brandon McCormick. "The cops grabbed me and my car got totaled ... I lost everything, coming down here to try to protect [officers] with what weapons I had ... I back up the law enforcement. I know some cops are bad. I know some people are racists are bad."
He went on to say he had left $1,000 and his cellphone in the car before it was set ablaze. He then claimed it was two "black African Americans" who "beat him through his window because [he] yelled, 'All lives matter.'"
Massive protests have swept the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who was killed while in police custody. A number of these demonstrations have taken a violent and, in some cases, deadly turn, prompting state and city officials to impose curfews. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has also fully activated the National Guard in response to the violence in the Twin Cities.
