A 45-year-old man has been arrested and is under investigation by the Hays County District Attorney over his involvement in a violent confrontation with teens protesting the White House’s immigration policies.
The altercation occurred just before 3 p.m. Monday in the town of Buda, just south of Austin, at an otherwise peaceful student walkout near Johnson High School in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Video appearing to show Chad Michael Watts of the nearby town of Kyle attacking the teenagers while wearing a red MAGA hat quickly went viral after the protest.
Since authorities didn’t witness the fight, no arrests were made on the scene, according to Buda police. However, after reviewing video footage, officers arrested Watts on Tuesday on two counts of assault causing bodily injury.
“After further thorough investigation, it was determined that Watts was the primary aggressor in the physical altercation,” Buda police said in Facebook statement. “Probable cause was established for two offenses of Assault Causing Bodily Injury, a Class A misdemeanor (Penal Code §22.01). The investigation is ongoing to determine if additional charges will be filed.”
In the video, a man in a MAGA hat and a female student engage in a verbal argument, after which he appears to throw her to the ground and strike her repeatedly until other students pull him away.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra issued a statement saying the district attorney’s office is conducting its own investigation into the brawl.
“No matter one’s political views, an adult bears a clear responsibility to exercise restraint, especially in the presence of children,” the judge said. “Violence or intimidation directed at a minor — particularly during a lawful, peaceful demonstration — has no place in a constitutional republic that depends on the rule of law rather than force.”
The judge continued: “I will not be silent when children exercising their constitutional rights are placed at risk. Our duty as a community is to protect the vulnerable and to uphold the foundational freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly that belong to all residents, regardless of viewpoint.”
The protest was one of several walkouts that happened Monday in Hays County. Students from Hays High, Johnson High, Lehman High, Barton Middle and Live Oak Academy High schools participated in the coordinated walkout, gathering at all four corners of the intersection of FM 1626 and RM 967, KUT reports.
Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright responded to the incident by clamping down on future protests.
“We are hearing reports of continued, potential walkouts at additional schools later this week. This cannot happen,” Wright said in a statement issued Tuesday. “These walkouts are a strain on the resources of the school district and community law enforcement agencies — neither of which has any control over what happens with national immigration policy.”
The superintendent added that future walkouts would only harm students.
“At a certain point, the original protest messages get lost in what begins to appear as oneupmanship about which campus can out protest the other,” he said. “Further, many also lose the messages in what may start to appear to be kids simply looking for excuses to skip school.”
In a Tuesday social media post, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott blamed students for the Hays County altercation, even suggesting that law enforcement officials should slap handcuffs on protesting minors.
“It’s about time students like this were arrested,” Abbott’s post read. “Harming someone is a crime — even for students. Disruptive walkouts lead to just this kind of chaos.
“Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior,” Abbott continued. “We are also looking into stripping the funding of schools that abandon their duty to teach our kids the curriculum required by law.”
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Democrat whose district includes Buda, responded to Abbott’s tweet by accusing the governor of taking sides with the man arrested for assault and lying about the nature of the demonstration.
“Instead of calling for justice against the grown man that assaulted a girl, Governor Abbott is celebrating the arrest of students and calling for the criminal investigation of schools and teachers,” she said. “He is also threatening the funding of our school districts and spreading the lie that schools are inciting our kids to protest.”
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