A 39-year-old man from Montana allegedly attacked a 13-year-old boy for not removing his hat before a rodeo event. The attack, which occurred at the Mineral Country Fair and Rodeo, led to the boy fracturing his skull, with the man was arrested and charged with attack on a minor.
“He was bleeding out of his ears, seizing on the ground, just not coherent,” Taylor Hennick, a rodeo attendee, told the Missoulian. The boy had to be airlifted to a hospital in Spokane, Washington where he was treated for skull fractures.
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“It’s just a lot of pain in my head. I don’t remember anything – the rodeo – the helicopter – nothing,” the boy told the television station KPAX, a Montana CBS affiliate.
The man, who was identified as Curt James Brockway, was arrested by police at 11 p.m. local time on Saturday. It was reported Brockway had a criminal record before the attack as he’s a registered violent offender for an assault with a weapon charge in 2010. He’s currently serving a 10-year probation sentence for the incident.
After Brockway attacked the boy, he tried to justify his actions as the bystanders tried to grab him.
“He said (the boy) was disrespecting the national anthem so he had every right to do that,” Hennick said.
It’s not clear if the boy decided not to take off his hat in protest or he forgot, but this incident stems from NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and President Donald Trump being strongly against it. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick made national headlines by kneeling during the anthem in 2016 and that led to Trump making this statement in 2017.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b— off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” He said during a rally in Alabama via Vice News.
From there, kneeling during the anthem became a hot topic and it has led to strong opinions from both sides of the argument. But when it comes to what happened in Montana, it’s likely it was a misunderstanding and a 13-boy was injured in the process.
Brockway is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 14.
