Man Who Waved Gun and Yelled ‘Womp Womp’ Arrested at Immigration Rally

An Alabama man who yelled “womp womp” and waved a gun at people protesting the separation of migrant families appeared in court Monday on charges of reckless endangerment and menacing, officials said.

The man, Shane Ryan Sealy, 34, pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanors in Huntsville Municipal Court, and a trial date was set for Aug. 21, said Christy Wampler, a court supervisor. Sealy was released on bond.

At about noon Saturday, Sealy began heckling a gathering of approximately 150 to 200 people at a public park in Huntsville, a city of about 190,000 people in northern Alabama.

The event was one of dozens of “families belong together” events held in cities across the country to protest President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, which included separating families and children who arrived together at the U.S.-Mexico border. The president signed an executive order on June 20 to end the practice, but more than 2,000 children remain separated from their parents.

Shortly after the rally in Huntsville’s Big Spring Park got started, Sealy, identified as a former high school teacher by the local station WAFF-TV, began marching back and forth between the crowd and a gazebo where organizers and speakers were seated.

He was holding a placard that said “Ice, ice baby,” a reference to the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while singing an unrelated song by that name by the artist Vanilla Ice.

According to videos recorded by people attending the rally, Sealy also yelled “womp womp” several times, repeating the sad trombone sound that was thrust into national discourse during the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

While appearing on Fox News on June 19, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, said “womp womp” when he heard a story about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was taken away from her mother in South Texas.

One video recorded by a person at the rally shows Sealy circling the gazebo, repeatedly shouting “womp womp” as Kerry Holder-Joffrion, an Episcopalian priest, starts to speak. “The uniting force of love is greater than the force of hatred,” she said, raising her voice to be heard above his.

Lt. Michael Johnson of the Huntsville Police Department said in an emailed statement after the arrest that Sealy started a fight with a protester and then pushed the protester, who knocked Sealy to the ground.

Sealy got up, pulled out a concealed Glock handgun and “waved it around visible to the crowd of protesters,” the officer said. Sealy then re-concealed the weapon and was walking away when he was arrested the police who were monitoring the event, Johnson said.

“We know he was agitating the permitted protesters, but he would not make a statement as to why he was there,” he added.

A second video, published by WAFF-TV from a witness, shows Sealy walking away from the rally as its attendees shout, “Gun, he has a gun.” The police then approach Sealy and arrest him.

Heather Resendez, a local organizer of the rally who had been seated inside the gazebo, said Monday that she saw Sealy confront a man who had been trying to “corral” him.

Sealy “shoved first,” the man shoved back and Sealy pulled out the gun from his waistband, Resendez said in an interview. He pointed the gun at the man in front of him, she said, and “waved it in our direction.” Resendez pulled a girl to the ground and a few others did the same, she said.

“I was screaming to the protesters, ‘Get down, he has a gun,’” she said. “I heard him making threats: ‘I could shoot all of you’ or ‘I could kill all of you.’”

While the “families belong together” events were widespread, there were few disturbances. Sealy’s was one of a handful of arrests reported that day, including one person in Columbus, Ohio, on a charge of obstructing official business, and five people protesting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Dallas.

Sealy could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. The court official said it was not clear if he had a lawyer.