On Saturday, FOX 7 was covering another story at the Capitol when we ran into a crowd of people clearly upset with State Troopers.
Thanks to cell phone footage, the arrests that had just taken place were caught on camera.
Justin Delosh with “Open Carry Texas” was one of the two men arrested by troopers for carrying pre-1899 handguns openly.
It doesn’t take modern ammunition. It’s definitely a primitive gun,” Delosh said.
After troopers arrested his friend, Delosh sat down in front of the black SUV.
“At that point in time he asked me to put my hands behind my back. At which point I said ‘Sir you haven’t told me what I’ve done wrong, you haven’t identified yourself to me or any of that,'” Delosh said.
Delosh says the other guy, ‘AJ’ Postell says troopers were so forceful during the arrest, they hurt him.
“The officer’s left leg is kicked way out. So therefore all the weight of his body weight is going on AJ’s back and it actually cracked some of AJ’s ribs,” Delosh said.
DPS tells Fox 7 in a statement the men were arrested “…for criminal trespass, a Class A Misdemeanor (30.05 of the penal code). The men were openly carrying suspected deadly weapons and were given the opportunity to leave the area, but refused.” DPS also stated that they were not made aware of any injuries, nor was one reported to them.
Delosh says he wasn’t asked to leave.
UT law professor Richard Segura and law student Phil Harris helped us flesh out the law in the Texas penal code.
“Firearm does not include a firearm that may have characteristics of weapons made illegal and that is an antique or curio firearm manufactured before 1899,” Segura said, reading from the penal code.
Harris says there are plenty of questions that remain to be answered.
“I would say the two are — did the officers have the ability to ask them to leave? Did they have the greater right of possession? And were they carrying a deadly weapon,” Harris said.
“The deadly weapon is just an exacerbating factor on top of the criminal trespass. In other words, the deadly weapon makes the punishment range greater for the criminal trespass. The true question is ‘should they have been arrested for criminal trespass irrespective of whether they had the deadly weapon or not,” Segura said.
While we were interviewing Delosh Wednesday afternoon, a trooper took him to the side and asked him if he was openly carrying a handgun.
But since it was just his empty holster in protest of not getting his gun back after being arrested, the officer let him go.
One of the issues raised after Saturday’s incident is the cursing and overall angry behavior of the crowd in response to the arrests.
Delosh says he doesn’t condone it and encouraged the group to be calmer the next time something like this happens.
In the meantime, the group is meeting with DPS later this week to talk about what happened.
The group says regardless of what happens during that meeting, they’ll be protesting in front of the Region 7 DPS headquarters on Lamar in December…with their long-guns and pre-1899 handguns in tow.