'There are criminal and civil actions that are going to be explored here'
Video shows a security guard at a college rally for Democratic socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders telling a man holding a "Trump 2020" flag to leave the area outside the rally. After some discussion, the man holding the flag complies.
But more video shows the security guard following the man with the "Trump 2020" flag all the way to a parking lot on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach.
Finally video shows the security guard grabbing the pole of the "Trump 2020" flag and tackling the supporter of President Donald Trump to the ground.
"I'm not an aggressive person," Markus Gohring, the man who held the "Trump 2020" flag, told WAVY-TV after Saturday's incident.
Gohring and his friends simply wanted to exercise their First Amendment rights, the station said.
"I wanted to tell the people that go there that I'm not with them," he said.
Gohring stood outside the venue for an hour waving the flag before he was approached by security, WAVY said.
"I didn't know who he was, what his authority is, and so I asked who authorizes him to tell [me] that I have to go off-grounds," Gohring recounted to the station. "We had a little discussion, but he was not approachable in any way."
Cellphone video after the 1:20 mark shows the security guard approaching Gohring and his friends, telling them to leave or he'll have them "arrested" — even getting right in Gohring's face and saying, "Don't try me. Don't try me":
As Gohring and his friends readied to depart, the guard screamed, "Leave! And I'm not gonna tell you again!" and then insisted, "You're on my property! This is private property!"
While Gohring and his friends walked toward the parking lot, followed by security, one of Gohring's friends told the aggressive guard, "You're very violent, sir."
The guard's reply? "You ain't seen violent, buddy."
The guard also refused to give his name or badge number.
Finally, video captures the moment that the guard got physical with Gorhing in the parking lot.
"He approached me then from behind and the rest is [on] video," Gohring told WAVY.
Video shows the security guard grabbing the pole of Gohring's "Trump 2020" flag, and when Gohring pulled back, the guard grabbed Gohring from behind by the shoulders and tackled him to the parking lot's surface — while Sanders' supporters cheered in the background.
Gohring suffered scrapes on his knees, the station said, adding that he got scared after the guard pulled out a baton.
"I saw he was pulling a weapon, and that's when I ran," Gohring told WAVY.
"It was a matter of getting that Trump flag off of that campus property," Gohring's attorney Tim Anderson told the station. "That was the 100-percent motivation of that campus security guard."
Anderson added to WAVY that he plans to press assault charges against the officer as soon as he learns his name.
"Well, there's consequences to actions, and so we are going to explore those consequences," Anderson also told the station. "There are criminal and civil actions that are going to be explored here."
According to Campus Reform, while VWU is a private university, the college advertised the Sanders rally on its website as "open to the public."
Virginia Wesleyan spokeswoman Stephanie Smaglo in a statement to WAVY said Gohring was "disruptive" and that the video circulating on social media "does not depict the preceding actions of the individual that necessitated the officer to take action."
She also told WAVY that the university, Virginia Beach police, and private security with Sanders' campaign provided security for the rally. It isn't clear which agency the security guard in question represented.
Smaglo added to the station that the school "holds freedom of speech and open dialogue at the deepest core of its values. However, when the conversation turns to physical violence and becomes a threat to public safety, it will not be tolerated on our campus."
TheBlaze on Tuesday asked Smaglo if she could detail what Gohring did that wasn't seen on video that necessitated the actions against him; she replied that "both sides now have legal representation, and as such, the university can unfortunately provide no further comment."