Police are asking for the public's help in finding a man suspected of stabbing another man during the anti-vaxxer protest and counterprotest in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.
Police described the suspect as white or Hispanic and between the ages of 20 and 30 with long blonde hair. He was wearing a black bandanna, black hoodie, black skinny jeans with holes in the knees and white tennis shoes at the demonstrations.
According to a statement from the LAPD, the suspect stabbed the victim in the upper right chest at around 2 p.m. L.A. Fire Department transported the victim to a local hospital in critical condition.
By 2 p.m., there were hundreds of people on the south lawn of the L.A. City Hall with advocates both for and against vaccine mandates.
The “choose freedom march” was a protest against “medical tyranny, mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports,” according to the organizers. While vaccine supporters met at the intersection of First and Spring streets around 1 p.m. for a "No Safe Space For Fascists" rally.
Social media posts depicted a number of altercations, which left many bloody and screaming.
The L.A. Times reported that Capt. Stacy Spell, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said police were monitoring the protest. However, in addition to the stabbing, a reporter said he was attacked while covering the Saturday protests.
A reporter for KPCC, Frank Stoltze, shared on social media, “I was shoved, kicked and my eyeglasses were ripped off my face by a group of guys."
Another reporter shared a video that he thought showed Stoltze being “harassed, shoved, & kicked by Proud Boys.”
The Times also published a photo of Status Coup journalist Tina Desiree Berg allegedly being attacked by a person with the anti-vaccine group.
Stoltze reported that despite a number of violent confrontations, LAPD officers on the scene did not intervene.
Conservative provocateur Andy Ngô and the LAPD referred to the counterprotestors as Antifa, but the Times described the groups as “a mixture of people who have shown up to oppose anti-vaccine and anti-mask rallies in recent months.”
Videos of the day show both sides throwing objects and punches. According to the Times, the stabbing victim was with the anti-vaccine group.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Police Commission that while both sides were granted permits to march, the police did not expect the turn toward violence.
“There exists no excuse or rationalization, despite what members of both groups espouse, what some members of both groups espouse, for the use of violence against opposing views or journalists,” Moore said.
Anyone with information on the stabbing was asked to call LAPD Central Area Detective Cheng at 213-996-1248. Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submitted online at lacrimestoppers.org.