Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a group of Black Lives Matter protesters allegedly beat a pair of praying Catholics at the monument to a French king that they want to be torn down because he persecuted Muslims.
The shocking scene was recorded as the group of Catholics told Newsflash they were praying peacefully at a statue of French King Louis IX in the city of St Louis in the American state of Missouri, while Black Lives Matter protestors gathered amid calls to have the statue removed.
In the video, a BLM protestor can be seen knocking the hat off a white man who had reportedly been one of the group praying at the statue.
An angered BLM protestor then says “you look like a skinhead” and begins throwing punches at the older man who tries to run away.
Another white man, who has identified himself as Conor Martin to Newsflash, then jumps in to help the victim but the mob then set themselves on him.
He is punched several times before running away as onlookers scream.
A man can then be seen falling to the ground as a protester with a stick runs towards him.
Martin wrote online that “while praying for peace and unity in our city and the protection of the Saint Louis statue, Black Lives Matter protesters started to harass, berate, and assault the Catholics that were peacefully praying”.
He added: “We did nothing in retaliation. We allowed them to spit on us, call us names, put their fingers in our faces, push us, and antagonize, but we did not retaliate. We continued to peacefully pray.
“One male then came over and said he would attack myself, one other Catholic man, and a Catholic woman that was there if we did not leave. We continued to pray.”
He said his friend in the video had come over to tell him his lunch had been delivered when the protestors set on him, reportedly taking his walking stick away from him.
This is when the video starts and Martin confirmed to Newsflash that he will be pressing charges, adding that he suffered “a minor concussion” in the incident.
He told Newsflash: “After the videos, we went to our cars and left. Yes, both myself and the other man attacked in the video suffered injuries. I’m not sure the full extent of his, but I was told I have a minor concussion.”
He called on the government to “defend the righteous” in a post online, saying that the police did not attend to the scene despite being called six times.
The incident came as protestors have called for the statue of King Louis to be removed because he led a violent Crusade against Muslims in the Middle East in the 13th century.
