A Texas man allegedly assaulted a teenage girl after instigating a violent, caught-on-camera brawl with high school students during an anti-ICE protest, according to cops and disturbing video.
Chad Michael Watts, 45, has been identified by police as the alleged aggressor seen in now-viral video of the chaotic scene involving students from Hays Consolidated Independent School District.
The students were gathered in a grassy area of Buda, Texas to demonstrate against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday afternoon.
The clip shows the man allegedly pushing and shoving an unidentified girl to the ground, as her baby-faced friends desperately tried to pull him off her.
The attacker then suddenly lunges onto a male student, violently pushing the boy to the ground before another teen, with his arms around the man’s neck, is able to flip him onto the ground, according to the video.
“Get him, get him!” students are heard yelling in the clip.
Footage then shows multiple students getting punches and kicks in on the man before he swiftly gets up and storms back to his grey pickup truck parked nearby.
As students swarm his vehicle and continue screaming profanities at him, the man appears to smirk and throw a bright red “MAGA” hat he’d been clutching during the brawl onto his head, before the clip ends.
Buda police responded to the scene and conducted interviews with the alleged aggressor, later identified as Watts, and the unnamed girl, both of whom declined medical attention despite suffering minor injuries, the department later said in a statement.
Cops let Watts leave, but “after thorough investigation,” arrested him the next day, according to the statement.
His subsequent mugshot shows Watts as bald and clean-shaven – a stark contrast from the full head of hair and beard he was seen in clips as having during the alleged run-in with students.
The Kyle, Texas man was charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury.
Cops said there was a verbal argument between Watts and the girl before it escalated to physical violence.
Hays County judge Ruben Becerra expressed disgust at Watts’ alleged behavior in a statement released Tuesday.
“No matter one’s political views, an adult bears a clear responsibility to exercise restraint, especially in the presence of children. Violence or intimidation directed at a minor – particularly during a lawful, peaceful demonstration – has no place in a constitutional republic that depends on the rule of law rather than force,” the judge wrote.
School officials, on the other hand, reportedly implemented new policies regarding student protests following the troubling walkout.
“These walkouts are a strain on the resources of the school district and community law enforcement agencies – neither of which has any control over what happens with national immigration policy,” Hays CISD Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright wrote in a statement.
“Future walkouts would not be productive and only hurt our students’ self-interests,” the official said, and noted that the protests “may start to appear to be kids simply looking for excuses to skip school.”
The new policies include requiring parents to physically sign their children out of school if they are leaving to participate in a protest and reinstituting Saturday detention for students with unexcused absences, among other measures.