Brandon McCormick, the man who pulled a bow and arrow and knife on Salt Lake City protesters has been charged with three felonies.
Each charge is Utah’s lowest grade of felony, The Salt Lake Tribune reports, with each offense carrying up to five years in jail. McCormick has also been charged with a misdemeanor count of threatening or using a weapon in a fight, which is punishable by up to one year in prison. His bail has been set at $100,000.
McCormick showed up to a downtown protest on May 30 with the weapons, saying he was there to protect the police from demonstrators. In a video, he can be seen brandishing the bow and arrow. A person asks him if he calls himself American, to which he responds, “Yes, I’m American. All lives matter.”
According to the charging documents, McCormick took the bow and arrow from his car and aimed it at protesters. Both that weapon and the knife reportedly form the basis for two of his charges, as he stands accused of being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.
The crowd responded with force, attacking McCormick, and flipping his car and lighting it on fire. Police officers managed to pull him out of the crowd and detain him.
“First, I got beat up when I yelled 'All Lives Matter.' Then I pulled out weapons and I got beat up some more,” McCormick said at the time. “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 then alleged that two “Black African Americans” were the ones who “beat him through his window because [he] yelled, 'All lives matter.'”
The Tribune reports that the 57-year-old man had spent almost 20 years in a California prison, and has previously been convicted of battery against a public safety officer.
