Trump protester: Police saved my life after disturbance at rally
The Donald Trump protester who sparked a disturbance Saturday at a Nevada rally -- forcing the Republican nominee offstage briefly -- is speaking out against the Trump supporters that he said “could have strangled me and killed me” after he had held up an anti-Trump sign during the campaign event.
“I’m actually a Republican,” Austyn Crites said in an interview with CBS Reno affiliate KTVN. “I’m a Republican and have been supporting Republican candidates for quite some time and I just don’t support Donald Trump...I just believe that he is very dangerous for the country.”
Crites, who had carried a sign with the words “Republicans against Trump” at the Reno rally before getting tackled to the ground by Trump supporters, described the disturbance at the event.
“When I pulled out the sign people around me were trying to grab the sign, and so all that was occurring was booing of course and that’s what you’d expect,” Crites said. “You’re in the middle of a rally the people around me are booing yelling, ‘get outta here,’ you know, and yelling profanities. And then all of the sudden because they couldn’t grab the sign or whatever happened -- bam! I get tackled by all these people who are just kicking me grabbing me in the crotch and just beating the crap out of me.”
The incident happened in the front rows of the rally, just Trump continued speaking. At one point, an unidentified individual had yelled “gun,” according to a statement by the Secret Service. Secret Service agents and Reno police detained the man and after a thorough search, did not find a gun.
“Somebody yelled something about a gun and so that’s when things go really out of hand,” Crites recounted to KTVN. “I mean people are just kicking me, grabbing my arms, twisting them.”
But he said he was thankful for law enforcement officials, who arrived on the scene instantly.
“Had they not been there it is possible that these people could have strangled me and killed me right on the spot,” Crites said.