Buffalo Man Shoved By Police Responds To Donald Trump’s Tweet Calling Him An ‘ANTIFA Provocateur’
Martin Gugino, the Buffalo man seen being pushed to the ground and suffering a critical injury by police in a viral video, has responded to President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated tweet calling him an “ANTIFA provocateur.”
“No comment other than Black lives matter. Just out of the ICU. Should recover eventually. Thx,” he said, according to the Democrat & Chronicle, a daily newspaper in Rochester, New York.
Gugino became the focus of ongoing police brutality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed man who died while in police custody after an officer knelt on his back and neck for nearly nine minutes. At a protest in Buffalo, New York, Gugino, who was part of a group of about a dozen peaceful protesters, was filmed by a news crew as he approached a crowd of officers and was shoved back. Gugino fell to the ground and hit his head.
Police were criticized for walking past the man as he bled out on the pavement, in addition to the use of excessive force against him. He was eventually taken to the hospital where he stayed for several days in intensive care with critical injuries.
Citing an unsubstantiated story from the far-right One American News Network, Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Gugino may be a part of an anti-fascist movement and may have set the interaction up.
“Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?” Trump tweeted.
Trump faced intense backlash for saying that the 75-year-old man could be a part of a broader conspiracy, even as unrest over police brutality continued across the country. Public figures like Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Mitt Romney, and other GOP leaders have said that Trump was fanning the flames of unrest. Romney called Trump’s tweet “shocking,” as The Inquisitr previously reported.
The White House defended Trump’s comments on Wednesday after press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that it was the president’s “prerogative” to question the interaction and blamed Gugino for his alleged past comments on police brutality.
“This individual has some very questionable tweets, some profanity-laden tweets about police officers. Of course, no one condones any sort of violence. We need the appropriate amount of force used in any interaction, but there are a lot of questions in that case,” she said.
