A cape-wielding former student at the University of Texas at Tyler attacked three people at a Turning Point USA event Tuesday, swinging a cane at conservative activists and hurling an American flag to the ground — the latest proof that campuses have become hostile territory for anyone who dissents from woke orthodoxy.
Smith County booking records identify the suspect as Ciro Tomlian. He was not enrolled at the university at the time, according to authorities. He now faces two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault causing bodily injury. He has also been trespassed from campus grounds.
Video shows Tomlian wearing a cape and a round-brimmed hat, grabbing an American flag from a stand and throwing it over his shoulder before flipping off the TPUSA students. "Back the f— off you fascist pieces of s—," he shouted. When a woman off-camera told him to stay away, he took a checked swing in her direction with his cane. After a male voice said, "No one's scared of you," he swung again, apparently striking the speaker.
The event was part of TPUSA's "Pick Up the Mic" open dialogue initiative, created in honor of assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Once handcuffed, Tomlian tried to reframe the assault as self-defense. "I was backed into a corner," he told the arresting officer, according to Fox News. He also said, "freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences" — a line straight out of the activist playbook that treats physical violence as a legitimate response to political disagreement.
UT Tyler President Dr. Julie V. Philley confirmed the attack in a statement. "An individual, who is not a UT Tyler student, assaulted three people," she said. "Everyone has the right to free speech, and violence will not be tolerated at this university."
Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) thanked campus police for their swift response. "The First Amendment protects your right to speak, even to protest. It does not protect assaulting people you disagree with," he said, as reported by the New York Post. "Violence has no place on any campus, and it doesn't represent East Texas."
This is not an isolated incident. Just last week, University of Michigan student Temulun Togochog attacked conservative influencer Lizzy Benichou on the Ann Arbor campus during a "Liberty Under Fire USA tour stop." On Election Day in New Hampshire, a 70-year-old poet was arrested for slapping a Turning Point Action volunteer outside a polling place. The pattern is unmistakable: conservative voices on campus face escalating physical threats from activists taught that dissent is violence — and that violence against dissenters is therefore justified.
Tomlian remains in custody at the Smith County jail. The question is whether university administrators will keep issuing statements after the blood dries — or start defunding the programs that produce people who think a cane to the legs is what democracy looks like.
