Samantha Hamer & Kerida O’Reilly charged with assaulting Wisconsin State Sen. Tim Carpenter during protests in Madison last month.
A school social worker & physical therapist have been accused of assaulting a Wisconsin state senator as he took photos of a crowd that toppled two statues during a protest in Madison last month have been arrested, police said.
Samantha Hamer, 26, and Kerida O’Reilly, 33 —with both women hailing from Madison, turned themselves, Monday afternoon following the assault of State Sen. Tim Carpenter, a Democrat from Milwaukee, on the evening of June 24 along the 200 block of West Main Street.
The assault followed protesters telling members of the media earlier that evening to leave the scene and demanding observers not take photos or videos during the demonstrations, which included tearing down two statues on the Capitol grounds and throwing a Molotov cocktail into the City-County Building.
Sen. Carpenter was repeatedly punched and kicked in the head and later required surgery for his wounds, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
‘I don’t know what happened … all I did was stop and take a picture … and the next thing I’m getting five, six punches, getting kicked in the head,’ Carpenter told the newspaper last month.
Both Hamer & O’Reilly now faces charges of substantial battery as a party to a crime and robbery with use of force as a party to a crime, police said Monday.
‘Thanks to help from the community, the case detective was able to identify the two persons of interest,’ police said in a statement. ‘Both turned themselves in today.’
School social worker & physical therapist implicated
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described Hamer working as a social worker for the Mount Horeb School District in suburban Madison — who as of late Monday was placed on administrative leave.
O’Reilly was identified as working as a licensed physical therapist in Madison. According to The Body Resilient’s website she graduated from Marquette University’s Doctorate in Physical Therapy program in 2011. O’Reilly also at one point was part of A Healer’s Hand + The Nest spa in Madison but her team member page was taken down Tuesday.
Monday’s statement did not identify Carpenter by name, but Madison police said a politician reported to cops that he decided to use his phone to capture the protests just before he was assaulted.
‘As he did, three people rushed toward him, saying something about his phone,’ police said. ‘One knocked it out of his hand. He said he was then sucker punched. He fell to the ground and was battered by several people.’
Reports told of roughly 10 people proceeding to kick and punch Carpenter as he ‘tried to explain’ that he was an ally to the demonstrators.
Carpenter told police he felt ‘lightheaded, stunned and dazed’ after the assault, but declined to go to a hospital. A paramedic treated him on scene before he later decided to go to a hospital, police said.
Carpenter then had surgery for his injuries about a week later.