A masked counterprotester walked into a Los Angeles Starbucks and doused two MAGA activists with blue paint after they were pursued from a nearby political rally. Video shows conservative journalist Eoin Richard Connolly and a companion wearing a red MAGA hat surrounded by protesters and cameras when a black-clad figure enters carrying bottles. The confrontation followed Connolly’s “Take Back LA” rally on August 23rd and left both men, along with the store’s floor and counter, splattered with bright blue paint.
The trouble grew out of a demonstration Connolly promoted as a free-speech rally opposing Islamic influence in Los Angeles. He said he intended to attend Mass before peacefully marching to the Islamic Center of Southern California on Vermont Avenue. Counterprotesters confronted the group and followed Connolly from Precious Blood Catholic Church to a Starbucks about a block away, where he and his companion were reportedly waiting for police.
Connolly and his companion had left the immediate rally area and entered the Starbucks to wait for assistance from law enforcement, but members of the hostile crowd continued after them. Connolly moving off the street out and of view apparently wasn’t enough to end the confrontation, as protesters and several people recording the scene gathered around the two men near the entrance.
The footage begins inside the coffee shop as several people crowd the entrance and record the confrontation on their phones. Connolly, dressed in a dark blazer and white pants, stands beside the second man, whose red MAGA cap and shirt are already marked with paint. A person dressed in black from head to toe, with a mask hiding nearly the entire face, then moves through the doorway with a bottle raised.
The New York Post published the clip under the caption, “MAGA activists doused with blue paint during chaotic clash with protesters in LA Starbucks.” The masked individual can be seen swinging one bottle over the men and pouring more of its contents toward Connolly. Witnesses shout for the person to stop as the encounter spills farther into the seating area.
Connolly and his companion try to keep the masked person away while bystanders continue filming from only a few feet away. Blue paint runs through Connolly’s hair, down his face, and across his blazer and shirt as the attacker lifts another bottle. The counter, chairs, and tile around the men are also covered in paint, showing how much of the liquid was thrown inside the business.
The clip captures the men attempting to move through the store while people shout around them. Connolly’s companion appears to put himself between Connolly and the masked person at several points, but the crowd remains tightly packed around both men. The footage ends while the confrontation is still ongoing inside the Starbucks.
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Watch the paint attack here:
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles later said the earlier confrontation at Precious Blood Catholic Church did not involve parish workers. In a statement reported by EWTN News, the archdiocese said demonstrators moved from the sidewalk into the church and were asked to leave by women volunteers who were cleaning and locking the building after the 12:30 p.m. Mass. It added that the people shown physically removing Connolly were not church employees or parish affiliates and that the parish had not authorized the demonstration or its filming.
LAPD spokesman Jeff Lee said officers responded at approximately 2:25 p.m. to a report that between 20 and 30 protesters were inside the church. Lee said no charges had been filed at the time of EWTN’s report. Connolly said he organized the march to “stand against the war on AMERICANS by” those he called “Jihadist sympathizers and Antifa Terrorists.” The available reports did not identify an arrest connected to the Starbucks attack.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.