Occupy San Antonio’s zero-arrest scorecard is history, but protesters said they were the ones who called police on a man who was charged with assault this week and cited under a city ordinance prohibiting public alcohol consumption.
Around 8:30 p.m. Monday, two San Antonio Park Police officers “responded to an assault in progress that involved members of the Occupy San Antonio” at 600 HemisFair Plaza Way, a police report states.
The incident was on the street in front of the area where protesters have stayed nearly two months, said an Occupy S.A. facilitator, Meghan Owen, 30.
“This was a domestic dispute that happened off of our area and he got arrested because some of our Occupiers called the cops on him,” she said.
The nationwide protest against economic inequality has sparked arrests in numerous cities but San Antonio police have repeatedly commended the local version as peaceful and law-abiding. Occupiers here likewise have described the police attitude toward them as cooperative.
Wandell James Pruitt, 31, was told to get rid of a tequila beverage he was drinking Monday night and he pushed Felisha Denise Quitugua, 24, when she tried to take it away from him, the report states. Occupiers say she was Pruitt’s girlfriend.
He did not admit to consuming alcohol at the location but an officer noticed “a strong odor of alcohol coming from him,” the report states. Pruitt’s residence was listed as Haven for Hope, a homeless shelter.Occupier Robert Jones, 38, said Pruitt came back to the protest gathering the next morning after being released from jail.
“I explained to him the rules on the board: no violence, no drinking, no drugs,” Jones said. “Watched over him as he packed his blankets, his suitcase, and I escorted him off of the property.”
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