Child rapist arrested at Antifa brawl in Washington state

A convicted child rapist was charged with felony assault stemming from violence at an Antifa and left-wing protest in Olympia, Wash. on Sunday.

Shaelyn A. Reed, 20, of Olympia, is accused of striking a man on the head with a baton in front of Olympia City Hall. Video recorded of the assault shows the victim bleeding profusely from the head. According to Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower, Reed allegedly disposed of his weapon in a trash receptacle and changed clothes before being arrested. A juvenile was also arrested on misdemeanor assault charges and a third unnamed person is wanted by police.

This isn’t Reed’s first run-in with the law. In 2017, Reed pleaded guilty to second-degree rape of a child. He is a registered sex offender in Thurston County, Wash..

Reed is currently held at the county jail on felony assault charges. Police believe he was also part of a group of rioters who destroyed property at an Antifa and Black Lives Matter protest in Olympia on July 5.

Before the bloody violence on Sunday, a few dozen Antifa and far-left protestors countered a small conservative rally. As the two groups met, insults and curses were exchanged, with Antifa accusing the conservatives of being “fascists.” Video recorded at the scene shows far-left protesters physically blocking drivers from leaving the rally and photographing the cars’ license plates.

A group of masked protestors appear to confront a man, identified by first name Edward, before a scuffle breaks out in the street. A witness says Edward was pepper-sprayed, which led to an attack where he was beaten and hit on the head with a baton. The man was punched by a second protester and a third person who hits him repeatedly with a protest sign. As the man is kneeling on the ground and bleeding, protesters continue to call him a "fascist." Edward was taken by ambulance to Providence St. Peter Hospital.

"The police were in City Hall watching what was happening, and they didn’t come out or respond because they’ve been instructed not to," says Peter Diaz, who co-organized Sunday’s conservative rally. "We started waving the public through the parking lot to go around Antifa. They’re terrified—Antifa was banging on the cars."

Diaz added: "The agitators hiding behind the BLM movement are not a problem, they are a symptom of the problem. The problem is the lack of leadership from the politicians running our city."