MADISON – A 31-year-old Dane County man has been arrested for substantial battery, battery and disorderly conduct with a hate crime enhancer for an incident inside the protest encampment on Williamson Street on the evening of July 29.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not naming the man because has not been yet been charged with a crime.
Lorien Carter, a matriarch of the encampment, said the man entered the camp and starting using slurs toward people gathered for a memorial for Corey Ruiz, who was shot by police last week. He became violent and struck several women when a team of deescalation volunteers approached him.
“When you use verbiage like that,” Carter said in an interview at the encampment, “that’s intentionally harmful to Black bodies, knowing what’s connected to it, and even the cost of it, … couple that with the physical violence … it’s a real threat and fear for us here, particularly when our main goal is literally just to keep a safe space.”
Carter said that people inside the encampment performed a citizens’ arrest, and moved the man outside the barriers, where Madison Police officers arrested him.
Though police have largely avoided the encampment, which sprung up in the aftermath of Ruiz’s death after he produced a knife during a struggle with officers, leaders wanted to ensure that the man was detained and no longer a threat.
The man is currently being housed at the Dane County Jail. A court hearing has not yet been scheduled.
This story has been corrected to clarify that the man has not formally been charged in Dane County.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X @SchulteLaura.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man accused of battery, hate crime in alleged assault on Madison protesters
Reporting by Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
