Authorities on Thursday detained Parkland father Manuel Oliver, who was attending a committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on gun rights, according to U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, who shared footage of the encounter on Twitter.
Oliver, whose son Joaquin was shot and killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High mass shooting five years ago, spoke out and was accused of interrupting a committee hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee, called “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment: When is Enough Enough?” according to video of the hearing.
Here is @manueloliver00 being arrested for speaking out at a committee hearing. His son, Jaoquin, was shot to death in Parkland, Fl.
MANNY IS A HERO. He didn’t deserve this. The Republican Chair of this committee just called him a narcissist. Disgraceful. pic.twitter.com/6jccYvesHb
“You took my son away from me,” Oliver’s wife, Patricia Oliver, said at one point in the meeting.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, ordered the Olivers to be removed due to being disruptive. As Manuel Oliver and his wife, Patricia Oliver, were removed, Manuel Oliver then was detained by police.
“You took my son away from me!”
— Parkland parents Patricia and Manuel Oliver are removed after interrupting a House hearing on Second Amendment protections pic.twitter.com/Bjjoq9k93W
Video of the encounter posted on social media showed two officers held Oliver down on the floor while his wife told them to “let my husband go.”
Patricia stood over the officers, arguing over the arrest as her husband is pinned to the floor. One of the officers warned her that she could be detained if she didn’t leave. When she continued to stay where she was, an officer appeared to shove her.
The Olivers have fought to curb gun violence. Manuel Oliver was detained last year after climbing a crane outside of the White House to urge President Joe Biden to fix the gun violence problem in America.
According to Oliver, he had asked for a meeting with the president, but hadn’t gotten a yes, so he set out to get the president’s attention to address the issue.
A few months later, Oliver was invited to the White House in July to be present for an event honoring a law aimed at preventing gun violence. Oliver shouted objections while the president was giving the speech, urging that more needed to be done, beyond a new law aimed toward reducing gun violence.
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