Street cam videos show before-and-after Highland Square fights with Proud Boy, others – Akron Beacon Journal

Video clips from street cameras in Akron's Highland Square show a more complete picture of what happened before and during a highly publicized incident in which a Proud Boys member punched a woman and yelled racial slurs at her, according to the man's attorney.

The clips show fights outside a bar that took place immediately before and after Andrew Walls of Kent yelled at and punched the woman.

Walls' attorney, Andrew J. Wides, released three video clips from Feb. 27 that show an obviously agitated Walls was the first person punched in what quickly turned into a brawl involving men and women. Wides said he is hoping to get identifications on some of the people in the videos.

Walls is charged with three misdemeanors in the case and continues to be investigated. As of Monday, no one else has has been charged in the incident.

One person, a man wearingtan pants who was pushed to the sidewalk and then punched and kicked by men and womenduring the incident, is now a client, Wides said. He has declined so far to name the person.

Walls, a member of the Akron/Canton Proud Boys chapter,is gay and married; the videos show Walls with his husband.

Walls was upset that night because men at the scene outside a bar were calling him and his husband anexpletive and derogatory term for homosexuals, Wides said.

The verbal attack happenedas Walls, his husband and friends were preparing to leave in a car waiting for them outside the bar on West Market Street, Wides said.

Two of thevideos show Walls punching the Black woman; there is no audio.

A bystander and friend of the woman also recorded the incident on a smartphone, including audio that captures Walls yelling a racial slur at the woman. That video was posted on social media.

Thenew video recordings came from the prosecutor's office, which is looking into criminal charges, Wides said. Two of the clips are related; one is a shortened version of a longer recording.

The FBI is still investigating the incident; as of Monday, no decision had been made to file federal charges, according to Akron police.

The Beacon Journal is not posting these latest video clips on its website to avoid identifying bystanders and alleged victims of crimes.

The clips show two different angles of the sequence of events involving Walls and others that were captured by video cameras outside a bar off Market Street in the Highland Square neighborhood.

"I haven't seen those videos," said David Betras, the attorney representing the woman who has filed a civil lawsuit against Walls. He said he has asked the prosecutor's office for them as part of the legal discovery process.

"If there is a video of him punching my client in the face, how does that change the narrative of the story?I don't care if he [Walls] was fighting somebody else," Betras said."He still called my client a racial slur and smacked her right in the face. Great, he was fighting with someone else. My client wasn'tfighting with him."

Walls and others in the altercation all of whom are white were calling each other racial slurs prior to Walls encountering his client, Betras said.

"My client says, 'Hey, that's not cool.' That's when he said, shut up [racial slur]b****and slugged her," he said. "So I don't know how that changes anything from my client's standpoint. Allshe said was, hey that's not cool because those guys werethrowing racial slurs back and forth. She's standing right there. ... I'll get those videos and take a look at them."

Wides said the videos show more context.

"In my opinion, based on a review of the full event, the clips show a verbal altercation that starts between two gentlemen outside the bar, my client, my client's friend and my client's husband," Wides said. "Mr. Walls is then taken to a vehicle and they are getting ready to leave and these other two gentlemen continue to advance at the vehicle and make fun of their sexual orientation."

None of the people involved in the fight were inside the bar earlier in the evening and interacted with Walls and his group, Wides said.

"At this point, the people Walls was with are trying to calm him down and get him inside the vehicle," Wides said.

Walls is yelling to the two white men on the street using the racial slur, Wides said. It was at that point one of the video clips shows the Black woman walking on the sidewalk with friends and appearingto interjectherself into the early stages of the sequence of events, Wides said.

Walls does not recall the woman saying anything to him whilehe was at the car on Market Street yelling at the two white men, Wides said.

"He was focused on the two men," Wides said."He used the exact same phrase that he used with [the woman]. And she corroborates that in her statement to law enforcement."

Walls then leftthe vehicleand wentto the sidewalk.

"And that is the point when he is punched by the taller guy in the black hoodie. That's when the fight starts," Wides said. "It seems to die down, it seems to defuse a bit."

It escalated as soon as the Black woman approached Walls and he punched her, he said.

Based on the shortened video clip, which runs for three minutes and 11 seconds, the violence begins shortly after anupset Walls steppedontothe sidewalk,removedhis jacket andwalkedout of camera range. Hereturned without the jacket andgesturedwith both hands at a man wearing a black hoodie and jeans, who then punched Walls.That turns into a brawl involving Walls, the man in the hoodie, Walls' husband, the man in tan pantsand another man wearing what appears to be ared knit hat. Walls, who wears glasses, has them knocked off.

Walls was thrown to the sidewalk. The group briefly separatedwhen Walls stoodup at 1:02 of the video clip and walkedtoward where the Black woman is standing with others. At 1:08 of the clip, about six seconds after getting up, Walls punchedthe woman. He then threwa punch at a male bystander and then another man wearing a reddish cap startedpunching Walls. The man wearing tan pants grabbedthe man with the red knit hat and they wentto the ground.

The melee movedoff the sidewalk onto the street between two parked cars with people grabbing and punching. The video shows the woman who Walls had punched getting pushed and grabbed;she also punchedWalls and then is thrown down. She, Walls and others disappeared off camera onto the street.

The clips after that no longer show Walls at the scene. Wides said at that point Walls and his husband left.

At 1:37 of the video, the Black woman reappearedand stoodon the sidewalk as the man in tan pants is on the sidewalk being kicked and punched.

At 2:41 of the video, the man in tan pants stoodon his feet. Within seconds, another man who had been involved in the earlier altercations approachedand pushedhim from behind and into a parked car. Two othermen grabbed him and he was soon back on the sidewalk. Theman with the reddish hatwho earlier had punched Walls then threwpunches to the head of the man in tan pants as he wason the sidewalk. The man with the red cap thenwalkedaway.

Wides said the videos show his client in the tan pants was the victim of felonious assaults that night.Wides said he hopes Akron police continue to investigate to identify the people committing the assaults that night.

Wides said the videos confirm what happened was not racially motivated or driven by his client's affiliation with the Proud Boys.

"It was not motivated by any racial animus," Wides said. "It was not motivated by any group affiliation. It's not motivated by hate of any individual in a protected class. And my client is a member of a protected class himself. I think what it is, is a bad night with a lot of people being over served and I think a really poor choice of words across the board that really started the event."

Beacon Journal reporter Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or http://www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ.

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Street cam videos show before-and-after Highland Square fights with Proud Boy, others - Akron Beacon Journal