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Video shows brawl between protesters and alleged Proud Boys at UC Davis Turning Point USA event

"They were yelling awful things at us, and very quickly, they turned to violence like right when they got there."

DAVIS, Calif. — A protester of the Turning Point USA event at UC Davis said the situation quickly escalated into violence when alleged Proud Boys arrived to the campus.

Will Alpers, a recent UC Davis graduate, said he was at the campus as an attendee and protester against the Turning Point USA event Tuesday. 

"I did not expect anything violent to happen at all; I thought it would just be a protest of the event and it would just be us students outside the building and then things really took a turn for the worst and escalated when the Proud Boys arrived," Alpers said.

The event was set to start 7 p.m. with doors opening around 6 p.m.

"it was a speaking event headlined by Stephen Davis, bodybuilder and community activist," David Kirker, member of Turning Point USA, told ABC10.

Kirker said his organization is not affiliated with the Proud Boys, but he feels the group showed up because of the counter-protesters.

"Several people did get hurt there are videos of people getting pepper sprayed by left wing," Kirker said.

Alpers said there were about 100 people outside the UC Davis Conference Center when roughly a dozen Proud Boys showed up. 

"They were yelling awful things at us, and very quickly, they turned to violence like right when they got there. There really was no time at all between when they stepped foot close to us and when they started throwing things," Alpers said, adding that the protesters threw objects back.

He said metal barricades became projectiles and fists started flying, with even some pepper spray being used. He said this went on for about 20 minutes.

"it's terrible that we're in this situation, like that we're living in a world right now where, practicing your free speech to protest something might mean that... violent people will come and harass you and harm you. So, it's just a tragedy that this happened in the first place," Alpers said.

University officials said the organizing students ultimately canceled the remarks from Stephen Davis due to safety concerns. Officials said staff from Student Affairs agreed that there was "grave danger" if the event continued.

"As a public university, we are committed to the First Amendment, and we are required to uphold it. We affirm the right of our students — in this instance, Turning Point USA at UC Davis — to invite speakers to our campus, just as we affirm the right of others to protest speakers whose views they find upsetting or offensive," the university said in a news release.

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