Article co-written by Aneesa Johnson

Four protesters were detained and three of them arrested at around 1 p.m. at the McCoart building on Tuesday after two agitators approached the protestors and an altercation took place between the groups.

Protesters were present to lobby the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) to defund the police and to highlight Supervisor Yesli Vega’s controversial presence on social media. During the 2019 campaign cycle, Vega regularly used racial slurs on her personal Facebook page, and she recently posted a heavily-edited video to her official page referring to residents who had spoken at BOCS meetings as “unhinged”.

The altercation began when an older white man walked up to the group of diverse young protesters and approached the one who was speaking into a megaphone. As he got closer to the young woman who was speaking, he took off his mask and got in her face, saying “I hope you and your family get shot tomorrow.” He then proceeded to approach the crowd of protesters and forced his way through them, shoving one young woman to the ground. As the protesters began to shove back, another agitator joined the altercation. 

Police quickly brought the two agitators inside and blocked the protesters from entering the building.

Soon after, four protesters were detained by police. As the only Black woman present among the protesters was speaking calmly to an officer, another officer grabbed her from behind and carried her into the building where she was subsequently arrested. One of the four protesters was released with a citation and told to leave the premises or he would be charged with trespassing while the others were arrested and held for several hours at the Adult Detention Center before being released. The protesters who were arrested were not involved in the initial altercation.

“I’m not surprised. I’m just angry,” said one protesters who asked to be quoted anonymously. “This is just what we’re out here for, just another example of how police use force against our community members.”

Moeez Sheikh, who was there with other protesters, noted that the police used this an opportunity to stop some of the protesters from vocalizing their position at the BOCS meeting, as they originally intended. Highlighting that those detained were not allowed to return to the meeting after being released and were “not allowed to say it [their speeches], because they were banned.”

Police left the scene before taking statements from any of the protesters who were assaulted. They were later called back to the scene by protesters who wanted action taken against the men who instigated the event. Unlike the other protesters, who were arrested and handcuffed in front of the crowd, police brought one of the agitators into a separate room where he was detained for about an hour before police escorted him to his vehicle. He was allowed to speak at one of the public hearings prior to the police escorting him out.

Three out of four of the protesters who were detained were featured in Vega’s video on her public Facebook page that labeled residents as “unhinged”.

Police on the scene refused to comment, and the Prince William County Police Public Information Officer was not briefed on the incident other than being told that arrests were made after the security footage was examined. Acting Prince William County Police Chief, Jared L. Phelps also declined to provide his take on the incident, as he did not “have enough information to make an intelligent comment” at the time.