A 60-year-old man has been arrested and charged after being caught in a video that went viral on social media. In the clip, the Maryland cyclist attacks a girl and yanks pro-Black Lives Matter (BLM) and George Floyd flyers from her hands. He then goes on to attack the cameraman filming the incident.
The cyclist, now identified as Anthony Brennan III of Kensington, Maryland was also fired from his job.
In the video, which was uploaded by multiple Twitter users over the past week, Brennan can be seen yanking papers out of the hands of a small girl who appears to be in her teens. The victims have their faces blurred as they have chosen to remain anonymous. Eyewitnesses say Brennan had done it to others as well prior to filming.
After the person recording demands for Brennan to stop his aggressive confrontation, the cyclist grabs his bike and charges at the camera. According to reports, Brennan pinned the person down after he dropped the camera. Watch the video below.
This grown a*s man just did this to a little girl who was posting flyers in support of George Floyd. This is sick. No grown man has the right to touch children, ever. pic.twitter.com/gxUZ3fFpmf
— Frank Giugliano (@nyccookies) June 4, 2020
According to WJLA, the fliers that prompted Brennan’s confrontation urged people to text “Floyd ” to a phone number and had statements like “Killer cops will not go free.”
As the video rapidly spread across Twitter, people banded together to identify the man, which helped officials arrest and charge him with second-degree assault.
After news of Brennan’s confrontation on the Capital Crescent trail near Washington, D.C. reached Made to Order Inc, his employer, he was fired. The creative marketing company based in the East Bay city of Pleasanton, CA issued a statement to confirm that he was fired and to relay the company’s standing on the current unrest. In it, they stated “Black Lives Matter” and that they were in solidarity with the movement. (See full tweet below.)
DCist released a statement Brennan put out through his attorneys, where he apologized for his actions.
“I am committed to making amends by addressing, through counseling, the underlying issues that led to my abhorrent behavior,” he said. “I am dedicated to working with the Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office to provide peace to our community and justice to the victims in the video, as well as to all victims of racism and police brutality.”
STATEMENT: Recently, we discovered one of our employees engaged in disturbing, wrongful, and completely unacceptable behavior directed towards peaceful demonstrators. [continued] pic.twitter.com/F9M2zQTK8j
— MadeToOrder, Inc. (@MadeToOrderInc) June 6, 2020
