White Alabama Councilman Arrested For ‘Sucker Punching’ Black Mayor
A Tarrant City Council member was arrested on Monday night after he punched the city’s Black mayor after a city council meeting on Monday night, according to Al.com. Mayor Wayman Newton was talking to Tarrant Police Chief Wendell Major near a pick-up truck in the parking lot, surveillance footage released by the Tarrant Police Department shows. That’s when 78-year-old Tarrant City Council member Tommy Bryant approached Newton and punched him.
From ABC 33/40:
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“I turned around to have the mayor approach me after I was having a discussion with the councilman, the mayor approached. The councilman told me, the mayor wants to see me, I turned around talked to him. The two exchanged words then the next thing I know the councilman struck the mayor,” said Chief Major.
Bryant was charged Monday with harassment and released on a $1,000 bond. Newton believes that the charges should be elevated to assault. Bryant and Mayor Newton had verbally gone back and forth with each other several times during the council meeting over various topics.
One of the major points of contention was whether to reinstate former Fire Chief Jason Rickels after he allegedly pulled a gun on a black Georgia realtor in the realtor’s home last year. This is not the first time Bryant has been in trouble over things he’s said or done. People had called for Bryant to resign over his usage of the n-word during a previous city council meeting.
“Do we have a house n—— in here?” Bryant asked during the council meeting, which was recorded. “Do we? Do we?” Newton then claimed he was repeating what Mayor Newton allegedly said to City Councilwoman Veronica Freeman. Newton denied those claims. Newton was also arrested after Bryant signed a misdemeanor warrant against him for harassing communications in August 2021. Again, Newton denies this ever happened.
From AL.com:
“Tommy Bryant is an unapologetic bigot who is a cancer to the City of Tarrant and my administration,’’ Newton said at the time. “I am confident that the baseless harassment claim he has filed against me will be thrown out.”
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