Police investigating chaos at end of Trump rally

WOODINVILLE, Wash. — A rally ended in chaos on the Eastside after someone dumped a bucket into the crowd and onto a man.

The confrontation broke out Saturday in the heart of downtown Woodinville.

It had been peaceful, but just as the Trump protesters were wrapping up, the situation escalated in a busy part of the city.

"I saw it happening, and my friends were like ‘you have to go as the doctor,’ " said Mandy Luttinen.

That is how Luttinen ended up in the middle of a chaotic afternoon in her hometown, dressed as the so-called “Plague Doctor” to spoof the Trump supporters who drove from Monroe to protest in downtown Woodinville.

“And I noticed some teens as well,” she said. “And I realized I probably should stick around because I know how teens are. I know how these rallies go.”

After a couple of hours, as the Trump supporters were wrapping up, they and the counterprotesters started yelling at each other.

“Then someone came out of the blue, I swear, I didn’t even see him coming,” said Luttinen. “He came out of the bush with a bucket. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. He threw the bucket at the guy and ran.”

“That’s when the man with the gun drew his weapon,” said Carter Lewis, counterprotester.

Fifteen-year-old Lewis got permission from his mother to tell KIRO 7 what he saw. He says the man had displayed his weapon even earlier.

“The guy that who is in the video with the gun pulled up his shirt to show me his gun as he was walking towards us,” said Lewis. "And I asked him if he was threatening a minor, and he said, ‘No, I’m just keeping everyone safe.’ "

“We’re not really sure of what’s happened at this point,” said Woodinville Police Chief Kathleen Larson.

She says police are still trying to sort out how things went so wrong.

She was asked whether the man was within his rights to pull out his weapon once someone threw what could have been a lethal weapon toward him?

“Well, and at this point, that’s what we need to figure out,” said Larson. “We need to put this whole thing together and reconstruct it from the very beginning until the very end. And then we’ll be able to make, to come to those conclusions.”

Larson says the man complained of stinging in his eyes. So they called medics.

She is asking anyone for video they haven’t already seen.

They want to find the person who threw the bucket. But she says there could be legal consequences for those on both sides of this political divide.

Cox Media Group