Gerardo Velasquez is charged with assault on a public servant resulting in bodily injury and attempting to take a weapon from a peace officer.
DALLAS — Dallas police said the man who was tackled, tased and punched by police during the anti-ICE protests near Downtown Dallas on Monday night allegedly kicked and slapped officers, and tried to grab a police stun gun during the skirmish that led to his arrest, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in his case.
According to the Dallas Police Department, officers arrived at the 3100 block of Gulden Lane near the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge after a peaceful protest gathering moved from a park area into the street at around 9 p.m., “causing impassable gridlock on an important roadway into downtown Dallas.”
During the police response to the scene, police said Gerardo Velasquez, 27, allegedly struck a window of a marked Dallas police patrol car in an “apparent attempt to break the window.”
Per the affidavit, one of the arresting officers promptly responded to that action because he “knows through his training and police experience, that persons engaged in a riot will often destroy the windows of marked police vehicles in an attempt to incinerate the vehicle [and] steal law enforcement equipment” and because he “also knows through his training and police experience that the destruction of police vehicles causes a dramatic escalation of violence by protestors.”
But, according to police, Velasquez turned to flee when the arresting officer attempted to detain him. During a struggle that ensued, the officer tackled Velasquez and ordered him to put his hands behind his back but, according to the affidavit, Velasquez resisted attempts to be handcuffed and responded with “combative language.” At one point, police said in the affidavit, Velasquez rolled onto his back and kicked an officer in his midsection as his fellow protesters tried to pull him away from the police and began shoving officers. Police said additional protesters then responded to the commotion by dragging one officer several feet away from Velasquez, leading to his uniform pants being “torn in multiple places” and to his body-worn camera becoming dislodged and eventually allegedly taken, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, officers then began pushing the group back and, after ordering them to retreat, eventually used pepper spray on multiple people in the crowd to create a buffer zone between protesters and police. During a subsequent struggle with officers, police said Velasquez slapped an officer in the face and dislodged one of the officer’s contact lenses, according to the affidavit.
The officers then tased Velasquez twice, and continued pushing protesters away, at which point police said Velasquez grabbed one of the officer’s stun guns before the officer was able to “rip” it back and holster it, the affidavit read.
Video shot by WFAA crews at the scene showed part of the struggle between Velasquez and the arresting officers, and also showed an officer punching Velasquez across the face at one point. That moment can be seen at the 2:13 mark in the below video:
The punch to Velasquez’s face was not mentioned in the affidavit.
Finally, the affidavit said, police were able to place Velasquez in handcuffs after the altercation that officers said “lasted approximately four sustained minutes.” Velasquez was then transported to Parkland Hospital for a medical evaluation before being transferred to Dallas County Jail, where he was booked on charges of assaulting a public servant resulting in bodily injury and attempting to take a weapon from a peace officer, jail records show.
Velasquez’s bond was set at $5,000, according to records. He had been released from custody by 6 p.m. on Tuesday.