A peaceful vigil for Jonathan Price — an unarmed Black man shot to death by a cop in Texas — erupted in mayhem when an armed white man showed up and clashed with protesters.
The tense confrontation went down late Monday night in Wolfe City, Texas … where Price was fatally shot Saturday at a gas station by Wolfe City PD officer Shaun David Lucas.
The moment an armed man appeared after the Jonathan Price vigil in Wolfe City. Things got out of control after he showed up with his firearm. Several protesters tried to tranquilize the situation. Police arrived minutes later, no arrests were made. pic.twitter.com/7JFsuVkDtv
— Benjamin Diez (@benjamindiez_) October 6, 2020
@benjamindiez_
After a prayer vigil, a white man arrived at the site with a large semi-automatic weapon … and was confronted by people at the vigil, including Black Lives Matter supporters.
Though several of the people tried to separate the armed man from angry crowd, emotions boiled over into shouting and charging at him … though it doesn’t look like he was ever physically attacked. Thankfully, he also never fired his weapon.
Tensions remained high after police arrived. Protesters wanted the armed man arrested. The man would be allowed to drive away after a long talk with local police in Wolfe City. #JonathanPrice pic.twitter.com/XjHtAqOAv1
— Benjamin Diez (@benjamindiez_) October 6, 2020
@benjamindiez_
Police arrived on the scene minutes later, and despite calls from the crowd to have him arrested for pointing his weapon at them … the man was allowed to leave after a long talk with officers. As far as we can tell, no arrests were made.
The vigil for Jonathan comes after Texas Rangers say he was shot and killed Saturday night by Officer Lucas who responded to a call for a domestic disturbance.
The Rangers say Price was involved in the disturbance and Lucas tried to detain him, but he “resisted in a non-threatening posture and began walking away.” Lucas then deployed his Taser and fired his gun and shot Price, who was reportedly unarmed. He died at a nearby hospital.
Jonathan’s family says he was actually trying to break up a fight between a man and a woman at the gas station, and claim there’s video showing Lucus’ shooting was unjustified.
The Texas Rangers say a “preliminary investigation indicates that the actions of Officer Lucas were not objectionably reasonable.”
Officer Lucas was arrested and charged with murder Monday. He posted his $1 million bond.