As looting and mayhem gripped the streets of Dallas, Texas, a mob descended on a man allegedly defending his neighborhood with a long blade. Punched, kicked and pelted with rocks, the man was left mangled and bloody.
Lawlessness continued to reign supreme in Dallas on Saturday night, five days after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests and riots. Following an afternoon of mostly peaceful protests, nightfall saw a spree of vandalism and looting in downtown Dallas.
In one shocking and graphic video captured by Blaze TV’s Elijah Schaffer, a man was set upon by a mob, after allegedly rushing rioters with a large machete or sword. He was quickly surrounded and beaten with rocks, fists, boots, and a skateboard.
WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
Little is known about what set off the incident, but Schaffer claimed that the man “attempted to defend a shop” from the mob, who responded by attacking him. Another angle shows the mob pelting him with rocks before he made an ill-fated attempt to rush the crowd.
As he lay motionless on the ground, with blood dripping from his face, the man was tended to by a group of “volunteer medics,” and was later taken to hospital. Dallas Police told local media that he was in a stable condition. They added that he had brandished the weapon to “allegedly protect his neighborhood from protesters.” Schaffer said that some rioters attempted to revive the man after he had been beaten to the ground, while others carried on looting around his motionless body.
A man called C.A. Shoultz came forward on Twitter on Sunday morning, saying he was the one being beaten in the video and adding that he was “quite alive, if a bit worse for wear.” Shoultz explained that he doesn’t have a gun and “didn’t expect them to rush me more than a dozen at once, or start throwing rocks at me first,” while admitting it was not the best idea to rush a rioting mob with a machete.
The man said he was “trying to protect a bar I love,” while promising the full story later.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott called in the National Guard on Saturday night, saying that “violence and looting will not be tolerated.” By 10.45pm that night, police in the city had made 74 arrests, but had largely failed to restore order to the streets.
In major cities across the US, the picture was similar. Sporadic battles between police and rioters would break out – crowds threw bricks at police horses in Dallas and tackled officers to the ground in Chicago, while the NYPD used their vehicles to push back against crowds of hooligans in New York – but in much of the US, anarchy continued to rule on Saturday night.
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