Armed Stand Off | Provo, Utah | John Sullivan | KUTV2 News

On July 1st, 2020 - Many groups recently came out to protest both for and against police brutality and racial discrimination of Black Americans in Provo, Utah. ​The conflict originated on Monday, June 29, 2020, when several cars tried to run over protesters who blocked busy intersections. It escalated quickly when Jesse Taggart, 33, of Salt Lake City, tried to protect innocent protesters from a vehicle adamant on killing them by firing several shots into a car. The 60-year-old man who drove his vehicle into the crowd of BLM Supporters was later found wounded with several bullet wounds to his arm.

A day after the events transpired a white supremacist group called Utah Citizens Alarm (UCA) formed a Facebook Group that amassed a little under 20 thousand members within 24 hours, aimed to hunt down all the BLM protesters and kill any organizers who were responsible. John Sullivan a Black video journalist based out of Salt Lake City, Utah was targeted by UCA due to his footage of the shooting that went viral on social media. Coincidentally he was the only African American man who was at the protest that day.

The Black Fist Coalition, SLERM, Black Lives Matter Utah, and Utah Against Police Brutality, held a protest that Wednesday after the shooting. Which was requested by the Provo Police Department to help restore peace to the community that had been up in arms about the incident that Monday. UCA the White nationalist militia made its event in opposition to the organizations. Multiple members of Utah Citizens Alarm threatened that if the BLM Supporters protested on Wednesday, they would run them with their cars and shoot them on site. The Group's leader Casey Robertson did not make any effort to condemn the threats being made by his members. On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, many groups came out and gathered in front of the Provo Police Station, lined up on opposing sides of the street. Armed Nationalists that were members of UCA came with bulletproof vests, automatic rifles, and tactical gear. In contrast to the BLM Supporters that had been dressed in all black only armed with signs like, "No Room For Racism" and "End Police Brutality.”

John Sullivan, who was one of the organizers that day which had requested by Provo PD mainly due to the demands from the community to have him arrested. Due to false allegations being made that claimed he was involved in the shooting that had occurred that Monday shocked attendees by and invited the groups that stood across the street from them to come up and speak. Sullivan stated, "If we don't listen to what they have to say, how do you expect them to listen to what we have to say?"

Multiple individuals came up and spoke about peace and unity, and claimed they wanted the same. Although many of them joined the Black Lives Matter protesters, many still opposed the gesture and stood their ground across the street.

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