"Let go or I will cut you."

Zachary Rotwein, a commercial crab fisherman was a volunteer at the Humboldt GOP booth during the Fourth of July festival in Old Town. He was the first witness to testify today in the William Koening preliminary.

"I was engaged in conversation with people and heard someone yell, 'He is taking our donations'."Rotwein said that he saw Koenig fleeing on his bicycle.



With his  hair cut and beard shaved, Koenig looked different but Rotwein recognized him and was able to further identify Koenig from "the tatoos on his knuckles". "That's him," said Rotwein.

"Several people brought him down. He was swinging his bike. I grabbed the bike. Several people were trying to subdue him."

Rotwein and Koening were in a tussle. Rotwein testified that Koenig said  to him, "Let go or I will cut you."

Rotwein said that Koenig also yelled angry words at him and others, including calling them fascists.

Officer Ben Altic testified that he found a black folding knife in Koenig's rear pocket with a three inch blade. Officer Altic's interviews with several witnesses corroborated Rotwein's testimony.

The donation box contained $61.


Earlier post:

http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2017/07/william-koenig-held-to-answer-on.html?m=1