Dramatic video captured a handful of suspected Proud Boys were given pepper spray in the face while shouting slander outside an LGBTQ bar in California.
The bar hosted a drag show on Thursday when about 10 people showed up to shout about “pedophiles” and harass bar operators and customers at the door. One asked: “How many children are there?†
Then the suspected Proud Boys were sterilized with pepper in their faces. Some officers who were there also appeared to have been hit by the spray. Police said Thursday they had not identified the source of the peppermint.
A larger version of the event at Mojo’s Lounge and Bar in Woodland, California, was canceled after threats against the venue and artists on social media. But after a outpouring of community supportorganizers decided they would still host a scaled-down version, Sacramento’s KCRA News reported.
Then the suspected Proud Boys, some with bandanas to hide their faces, showed up.
“It was so good to see people so happy – and then to see the exact opposite, people were scared. People were angry. People were really upset,” Christy Hayes, owner of the bar, told KCRA. “This isn’t what we wanted.”
“There was an altercation,” Woodland Deputy Chief of Police Anthony Cucchi said at the scene. “People here were upset about the bar having their Pride event. We tried to intervene as quickly as possible. It was quite a chaotic scene.”
Videos posted on social media do not show police taking action.
Cucchi said an investigation is ongoing and police are trying to determine if the suspected Proud Boys traveled from out of town to harass the bar and customers.
LGBTQ people have increasingly targeted by right-wing extremists, including the Proud Boys, for the past few weeks.
A group of proud boys yelling “pedophiles” turned up in Frisco, Texas, last month for the… first-ever community event to mark Pride Month† But they were blocked by a “human shield” of Pride supporters†
Earlier last month, 10 Proud Boys disrupted a drag queen story at the San Lorenzo Public Library in California. One of them was wearing a ‘kill your local pedophile’ shirt. The Almeda Sheriff’s Department has opened a hate crime investigation into the confrontation.
Proud guys too stormed a public library to disrupt a “Celebration of All Families” event last month in Wilmington, North Carolina. And 31 white racists were arrested last month outside a Pride event in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.
Earlier this week, New Zealand declared the Proud Boys a terrorist organization. Canada called the group a “terrorist entity” a little over a year ago.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.