Editors note: This article has been updated to correct the characterization of State Rep. Erin Zwiener’s participation in the effort to get one of the arrestees out of jail. It has been updated to reflect that she merely assisted in finding an attorney.
Texas state troopers arrested two protesters Wednesday as 300 people gathered outside Dilley’s South Texas Family Residential Center to call for the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was arrested along with his father in Minneapolis.
The protestors taken into custody, Gavin Pope and Robert David Padgett Jr., have both been released from a Frio County jail as of Thursday afternoon.
Department of Public Safety personnel arrested Pope and Padgett Wednesday afternoon after the troopers deployed a chemical agent to disburse the protest. Eyewitnesses the Current spoke to said they didn’t see either man do anything that warranted arrest. Video of their arrest, captured by News 12, seems to verify their claims.
Padgett received three Class B misdemeanor charges for resisting arrest, interfering with public duty and refusal to be searched, according to organizers trying to cover the two activists’ legal bills. Meanwhile, Pope was charged with a Class B misdemeanor for interfering with public duty.
As of press time, fellow activists have raised more than $5,000 to cover the pair’s legal expenses. However, organizers of the fundraising campaign said they’re still seeking donations because they’re unsure how high the legal fees ultimately will run.
Groups behind the fundraising effort include Mootual Aid (SATX), Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry and other local organizations.
The groups are still accepting contributions via a PayPal donation page benefitting the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry. The activist groups specified that contributions toward the activists’ legal fees should be accompanied with the note “Release Funds.”
Pope got out of pre-trial detention Wednesday night, after a lawyer pressured a judge for his release. State Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Democrat representing Hays County, also assisted in finding an attorney, according to a source familiar with the situation who asked not to be named for personal protection.
Bail was posted for Padgett Thursday afternoon, according to an organizer involved with their release, who also asked to not to be named for safety reasons.
Padgett’s release had been delayed because he was initially sent to a hospital, according to organizers, who said that his altercation with DPS personnel opened a stitched-up wound that he’d received from a work injury.
Chaos on the ground
Most of the protestors had already left around 3 p.m. Wednesday when a school bus full of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrived and the scene. Their presence escalated tension outside the detention center, the Current reported from the scene.
Troopers wearing riot gear suddenly fired tear gas into the crowd of approximately 70, which included both protestors and journalists.
“They just decided at some point, on public land, to disburse this crowd,” one of organizers, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Current via Signal. That organizer was an eyewitness at the scene.
Gov. Greg Abbott claimed Thursday that one or several activists may have spit on the DPS troopers, prompting the escalation. However, the organizer who spoke to the Current questions that allegation, and adding that the reports may be referring to an activist who was recorded blowing bubbles at the troopers moments before the escalation.
“There was no provocation, they were provoked by bubbles,” the organizer added. “I didn’t see any spitting.”
The News 12 video of the violent clash does not show any protestors spitting either, though it does show troopers suddenly forming a line and pushing back the crowd before grabbing the front-line protestors and forcing them to the ground.
As the troopers began firing canisters of a chemical agent into the crowd, those affected included both protesters and members of the press. The chemical irritant was later determined to be LIVE MAXX PAVA Projectiles (or PepperBalls), thanks to a photo of one of the spent canisters provided to the Current by an activist.
One PepperBall struck a News 4 SA cameraman in the face, causing him to drop his camera, according to footage shared from the scene by the TV station.
Rev. Erin Walter, who spoke to the Current in a phone interview, said she was loading her parishioners into a bus when the chemical agent was deployed.
“We basically turned our bus into a triage bus for a couple of hours,” said Walter, who leads the Texas Unitarian Universalist Church Justice Ministry in Austin.
‘Community effort’
Walter and other faith leaders led a procession of protesters from a nearby park to what she calls “the concentration camp.” She added that some of the faith leaders had recently returned from Minneapolis, where they assisted in resisting ICE escalations in communities.
“So, we were feeling very deeply the connection to people across the country who are crying out for our government to stop attacking us, and for our government to take care of the people instead of incarcerating them,” Walter said. “And I feel very emotional about it, and people are rightfully furious and grieving, but we are also determined, and we will not stop until they close these facilities and ICE is defunded.”
After the arrest of Pope and Padgett, a group of witnesses affiliated with various organizations assembled a group chat to coordinate legal aid. The day before, Walter offered up the church’s PayPal as a fundraising platform, in the event of any arrests.
Though the organizer who asked not to be named said Padgett had come to the protest with a group, but the members ended up leaving him in Dilley shortly before his arrest, adding that he didn’t have a car nearby to drive back to San Antonio.
As a result, activists are also coordinating to pick up Padgett at the Dilley jail and transport him to San Antonio, the source added.
Together, the rag-tag group also worked to find attorneys and pressure the judge to set a bond.
“It’s been a real community effort to respond in an emergency fashion,” said organizer said.
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