Police arrested an ardent opponent of vaccines for allegedly assaulting State Sen. Richard Pan in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Pan, who is also a pediatrician, is the Legislature’s leading advocate for vaccines and the author of SB 276, which would require the state health department to approve and track all physician-authorized vaccine exemptions.
Pan was walking with a colleague on his way to a noon event in the city when the suspect, identified as Austin Bennett, struck the legislator in the back.
“He struck me pretty hard but I didn’t fall,” Pan said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. “He kept shouting.”
Sacramento police said the 54-year-old Bennett was charged with misdemeanor assault and released. The incident took place on on L. Street near Eighth Street.
Bennett was shooting a Facebook Live video as he followed Pan down the street — and filmed the moment he pushed Pan in the back.
“Yes, I pushed Richard Pan for lying, laughing at us and for treason,” Bennett admitted on Facebook.
Before he runs into Pan on the street, Bennett’s video includes extended discourses on how statues on the Capitol Mall represent the advance guard of Lucifer, how President Trump has blasphemed against Yahweh and how chemtrails are being used to block the sun’s energy.
The push happens around the 10 minute mark:
“I probably shouldn’t have done that,” Bennett says in the video a few moments after pushing Pan.
Bennett failed in a bid to challenge Pan in the State Senate last year, and is working on a recall effort against the lawmaker.
The suspect’s Twitter page says he is “fighting against mandatory vaccines, child act care laws” and is “for people’s rights and freedoms.”
Pan says Bennett has verbally harassed him in the past.
“He’s approached me here in the Capitol and in the district as well,” Pan said.
Pan’s pro-vaccine leadership in the Legislature has led to other severe reactions.
“I get harassed on social media, practically daily,” Pan said. “We’ve got to tone down the rhetoric. Assaulting a public official is the next logical outcome of violence inciting language.”
State Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins issued a statement following the assault.
âThere is absolutely no reason for resorting to violence,” Atkins said.
“We may not all agree on every piece of legislation, but that is no reason to resort to aggressive and harmful behavior. There is ample room to discuss differences of opinion within the Legislative process, which is transparent and open to the public, and it is shameful that someone would betray the trust we have placed in that process and physically attack Dr. Pan.”
KQED’s Tara Siler contributed reporting to this story.Â
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