California cops said Tuesday that witnesses have given conflicting accounts of what preceded the death of a pro-Israel protester on Sunday afternoon, leading them to detain and release a suspect who was in an altercation with 69-year-old Paul Kessler before he fell and hit his head.
The fatal encounter occurred in Thousand Oaks, California, where dueling protests with supporters of Palestine and Israel took a violent turn.
What exactly occurred is murky, according to the Ventura County Sheriff James “Jim” Fryhoff. He indicated Tuesday that witnesses from the different protests have given conflicting accounts about who was the incident’s initial aggressor.
ADVERTISEMENT
A nearby Shell gas station has the only security camera with footage of the deadly altercation, but a sign displaying gas prices blocked the camera’s view, Fryhoff said.
Jonathan Oswaks, a pro-Israel protester at the rally, told The New York Times that he witnessed a man swing a megaphone at Kessler, who had been holding an Israeli flag. But Oswaks said he isn’t sure if the megaphone actually struck Kessler.
Chris Young, the county’s medical examiner, said in a press conference Tuesday that Kessler had nonlethal injuries to his face, indicating he could have been hit by an object.
While what led up to Kessler’s death remains unclear, Young deemed his death a homicide, as he was killed by blunt force trauma to his head.
“He fell backward and struck his head on the ground,” Fryhoff said of Kessler. “What exactly transpired prior to Mr. Kessler falling backward isn’t crystal clear.”
Fryhoff said investigators “have not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.” The final known photo of Kessler, reportedly snapped five minutes before his fatal fall, showed him wearing a short- sleeved button up shirt, with sunglasses and a hat on. He was holding an Israeli flag on a pole.
The sheriff said they’ve identified a 50-year-old man as a suspect, adding that he was one of the people who called 911 while Kessler was bleeding from his head and mouth on the ground.
That suspect stayed at the scene until cops arrived and interviewed him, Fryhoff said. He said the suspect was “cooperative” and “indicated he was involved in an altercation with Mr. Kessler.”
A search was conducted at the man’s house in Moorpark hours later, with cops pulling over the man’s car—and briefly detaining him—before they released him later that evening, Fryhoff said. The sheriff said he could not divulge what was found—if anything—in a search of the suspect’s home, or what the purpose of the search was.
Grisly video of the aftermath showed Kessler lying on his back with blood dripping from his head. He was still conscious when he was rushed to a hospital, Fryhoff said, with a CT scan showing he had intracranial injuries and hemorrhaging. The sheriff said he succumbed to his injuries overnight, and a makeshift memorial was constructed on the street corner where he fell.
Fryhoff said there were between 75 to 100 demonstrators combined in both protests, which flanked a street in Thousand Oaks. Bri Oard, a freelance journalist, told The Los Angeles Times that protesters had demonstrated in the same place each Sunday. She said she wasn’t aware of any violence at previous protests.
Kyle Jorrey, a former newspaper editor at the Thousand Oaks Acorn, tweeted Monday that Kessler regularly wrote letters to the editor when he worked at the paper. He said Kessler was an “ardent Democrat” who had a “sharp wit and loved a good takedown.”
Kessler’s final letter, penned in September, railed against someone who’d complained about rising gas prices.
Kessler’s death is the latest bout of violence in the U.S. to stem from the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which also appears to include the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy.
