California pie-thrower stands by attack on Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- New pictures were released of the attack on Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson during a charity dinner Wednesday night, CBS Sacramento station KOVR-TV reports.
Sacramento Magazine released four photos showing the confrontation and the aftermath.
One photo shows the moments after suspect Sean Thompson admittedly threw the pie in Johnson’s face. He can be seen with his hand on Thompson’s back.
Another photo shows a plainclothes officer intervening, moving Johnson out of the way and tackling the suspect to the ground. There is a red mark on Johnson’s shirt cuff that appears to be blood.
A third photo shows the officer holding Thompson to the ground as more officers arrive to take Thompson into custody.
The final photo shows Johnson with coconut cream pie on his face.
Thompson is a member of the Occupy Sacramento movement and explained his motives in a jailhouse interview.
“I feel bad that I sent the message to a lot of people of violence and that I sent a message that would scare people, ‘cause that wasn’t my intention. I still stand by what I did,” said Thompson.
Thompson sat facing the media with no regrets. He said he felt pressured to do something to send a message and embarrass Johnson.
“So I decided to throw a pie in his face,” Thompson said.
Thompson said he’s fed up with Johnson’s lack of help for the homeless with all his attention on his “golden” project, an arena named the Golden 1 Center.
“If he had put the energy into those things that he put into the arena, we would have so few problems left in the city,” said Thompson.
Guests at this year’s Seeds of Hope fundraising dinner hosted by Johnson were left stunned when Thompson revealed his alleged weapon: a coconut cream pie.
“(He) really hit him hard with that pie,” said business owner Bobbin Mulvaney. “Quite frankly, we were shaking. It was a scary situation.”
“All of a sudden I looked and you could see he was kind of wiping something,” said Erika Bjork of the Sacramento Republic soccer team. “He had this shock on his face, and then before I knew it, obviously the two of them were kind of in little bit of a- probably a tussle’s the one way to describe it.”
Thompson, who suffered lacerations on his face from the mayor fighting back, said Johnson’s reaction wasn’t appropriate. Some said the reaction was not “reasonable force.” But some witnesses said Johnson was spot on.
“He’s fighting, and he doesn’t know if he’s fighting to keep this guy from getting- if he has another weapon on him,” Mulvaney said. “So, yeah, the mayor hit him. There’s no soft gloves in that kind of game.”
As for Thompson, he wouldn’t speak about how long he’s planned this out. But when asked if he’d do it again, he said, “Absolutely, I’d do it twice.”
Thompson added that his actions were not representative of Occupy Sacramento.
He was arrested on a felony charge of assaulting a public official and a misdemeanor charge of battery on school property.