Man with “ICE ICE baby” sign arrested after pulling gun at Families Belong Together rally

A pro-ICE counterprotester yelled “womp womp” before pulling a gun out of the waistband of his cargo pants at an immigrants rights rally in Huntsville, Alabama, on Sunday.

About 100 people had gathered in Huntsville for a “Families Belong Together” rally on Sunday — modest numbers compared to other rallies taking place around the country the same day. As a priest gave a prayer for children separated from their families at the border, videos of the protest show a man — holding a sign that read “ICE ICE baby” — pulling out a firearm after yelling “womp womp.”

He’s now been charged with menacing and reckless endangerment, according to AL.com.

The counterprotester, 34-year-old former schoolteacher Shane Ryan Sealy, according to AL.com, was echoing the words of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Last week on Fox, a commentator brought up the case of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome separated from her mother at the border. “Womp womp,” Lewandowski responded, although he swears the comment was directed at the other guest, a Democratic strategist, rather than a reaction to the child’s situation.

READ: 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome taken from mother at U.S. border, Mexico says

Before pulling out his gun, Sealy had been marching back and forth in front of the Episcopal priest, Kerry Holder-Joffrion, as seen in a video taken by a bystander. She closed her eyes and continued her prayer from under the gazebo where the protesters were assembled, she told the Washington Post. At that point, one of the protesters also started following Sealy around as he chanted “womp womp” carrying her own sign that read “Super Callous Racist Fascist Sexist Braggadocious," the video shows.

“We pray that you would hear us above the noise, we pray that you would hear us as voices of peace. We pray for our enemies, for our ancestors who moved from somewhere to here,” Holder-Joffrion said in the video. “And we claim through this prayer that the uniting force of love is greater than the force of hatred.”

Shortly after Holder-Joffrion prayed for unity over hatred, Sealy pulled his gun, a second video from another bystander's perspective shows.

“Gun! Gun!” someone in the crowd yelled, holding up his fingers in the shape of a firearm to try to get the protesters’ attention. Most of the protesters got down on the ground, but several followed Sealy, pointing at him while keeping the cameras on their phones rolling. Two police squad cars rolled up and stopped Sealy as he walked away from the crowd.

Sealy put his hands up, still holding his “ICE ICE baby” sign.

When Holder-Joffrion finished her prayer, according to the Washington Post, she opened her eyes to see people splayed out on the ground, some sobbing, and half a dozen police officers detaining Sealy.

“I realized they’d been among us in the crowd all along,” she told the Washington Post, referring to the cops.

Cover image: Screenshot from bystander video