Former Phoenix Suns guard and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson assaulted a protester after he was hit in the face with a pie Wednesday.
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Sean Thompson, a 32-year-old local activist, was charged Friday with one count of felony assault against a public official and one count of misdemeanor battery.
The mayor and former National Basketball Association star was greeting people eating at an outdoor charity dinner Wednesday night when a man approached Johnson from behind and shoved the pie in his face.
The attorney for political pie-thrower Sean Thompson is questioning the current lack of video evidence in the altercation with disgraced soon-to-be-former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson. Witnesses say that Thompson also punched the mayor and the mayor punched back.
Sacramento Magazine released four photos showing the confrontation and the aftermath. In a jailhouse interview on Thursday, Thompson admitted bringing a coconut creme pie to a fundraiser for St. HOPE, Johnson’s charter school. Bail has been set at $100,000.
Sources in attendance have told the Express that, during the meal, a protester ran at the mayor and threw a store-bought pie in his face. “I still stand by what I did”.
“There was no throwing of the pie”, said Erika Bjork, who was attending the dinner and saw the encounter up close. Thompson said he meant to use it to “embarrass” the mayor. Of his politically motivated pieing, he said: “I feel bad that I sent the message to a lot of people of violence and that I sent a message that would scare people, because that wasn’t my intention”.
The mayor, he said, has focused too much on the city’s new basketball arena and not enough on helping its homeless population.
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After this, the protester reportedly said something to Johnson. Thompson got a black eye and cuts. But when asked if he’d do it again, he said, “Absolutely, I’d do it twice”.
