The president had planned a military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of US Army that just happened to fall on his birthday. In response nationwide protests were also planned for that day.
In the meantime, immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) had been carrying out raids and deportations across the country. Starting in Los Angeles and spreading throughout the country protests of those policies had sprung up. The president unilaterally ordered the national guard, and subsequently US Marines, into LA over the governor’s objections. When June 14th arrived, the country awoke to the news that two Minnesota state legislators had been targeted for assignation in their homes overnight, and one was killed along with her husband while the other was seriously wounded along with his wife.
The Austin No Kings rally was scheduled for 5:00 pm at the State Capitol, but at 1:00 DPS, citing credible threats to Texas lawmakers who participated, evacuated the capitol building and grounds.
By five o’clock, the grounds at reopened, and the turnout was enormous, as it had been in cities and towns across the country all day. My estimate was 12,000 people. By 6:30, troopers had shutdown the adjacent street and allowed the crowd to spill out.
There were a handful of counter protestors on the fringes , but confrontations remained verbal.
Two of these counter protestors made their way onto the grounds and into the crowd clearly to agitate, but it still remained verbal while I was present. That changed.
Back in the street, I saw the two coming out the gates embroiled with a group of protesters. As I began covering the confrontation. A woman was yelling for the protesters to be careful and finally saying “He’s got a knife.” Two state troopers came to investigate, and the woman told them one of the men had a knife and had pulled it. They spoke to the man and began to take him away while his companion continued the verbal altercation with protesters. Troopers intervened and removed the man from the crowd, but some protesters continued to pursue him. The two men were loaded into DPS vehicles and removed from the scene. I don’t know if it was an arrest or a rescue, and I never saw the knife.