2 Wanted In Trump Demonstration Hate Crime Investigation

LOS ANGELES, CA — Two men caught on camera accosting a Black woman during a pro-Trump rally outside Los Angeles City Hall last week are being sought on suspicion of hate crime, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Tuesday.

Police are asking for the public's help identifying two men considered "people of interest" in a reported hate crime that took place the same day group of pro-Trump demonstrators breached the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn the election results. The alleged victim said the group of pro-Trump demonstrators called her racial slurs and assaulted her, pinning her while pepper spraying pepper her.

"There is zero tolerance for crimes based in hate and the department will aggressively pursue every lead to bring individuals to justice," the department said in a news release.

Photos of the incident, shared widely online, caught the attention of the LAPD. Photos showed the woman being grabbed while surrounded by a crowd holding flags and wearing Trump hats at a protest in downtown Los Angeles. The woman, identified as Berlinda Nibo, 25, was later interviewed by police, and a hate crime and battery report was completed. Police are interested in interviewing two men seen in the photos.

One man, described as roughly 40 to 45 years old, white and roughly 6 feet tall, was seen in one of the pictures wearing a gray hat with an American flag on it and a gray shirt with "45" on the front.

A second man, described as white with brown eyes, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, was wearing a black hat, black tactical vest and ripped jean shorts in the photos. Police said the man is roughly 30 to 40 years old.

Nibo, who lives in the area, told the Los Angeles Times she had come upon the protest Wednesday while walking to get breakfast with a friend. When the crowd circled her and pinned her, she thought they would kill her, Nibo told the newspaper.

Nibo told the Times she thought, "I'm dead right here, these people are trying to kill me."

Nibo and her friend had initially crossed the street to avoid the crowd, but soon after realized the friend's phone was missing. She told the Times she began calling it while her friend rode on a skateboard through the crowd to look.

That's when people began following her, asking her whether she knew who Joe Biden is and if she voted for Donald Trump, Nibo told the newspaper. Soon, people began hurling racial slurs and chanting "white lives matter," according to the Times.

Nibo told the paper she flipped off members of the crowd and people began shoving her before someone grabbed her phone and one woman tore off her wig.

A man then came up and grabbed her from behind, holding her so she couldn't move.

The man, who was photographed holding Nibo, "was determined to be a Good Samaritan that helped her get away from the hostile crowd, by carrying her to safety," LAPD wrote in a tweet the next day. Nibo said the man was whispering in her ear, telling her to "calm down," and that he wasn't going to hurt her, she told the Times.

The Good Samaritan was an employee of a Southern California Toyota dealership and, according to a tweet from Toyota, the man was no longer employed by the dealership.

The newspaper reported that an LAPD spokesman said the agency opened a personnel investigation over complaints by Nibo that officers at the scene did not try to investigate the attack despite her urging.

In a news release Monday, the LAPD said "the department is committed to ensuring all efforts are made to support prosecution of this alleged hate crime while ensuring that people of every background are protected and served with equality."

Anyone with information on the people of interest can call the department at 213-996-1248.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.