Parkland father Manuel Oliver arrested at U.S. Capitol after protest during ‘ATF Overreach’ hearing
Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was among the 17 victims of the Parkland school shooting, was arrested for protesting during a hearing Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Oliver first used Twitter to protest. He wrote that it was “incredible” to watch “how Republicans decided” to attack the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Oliver wrote the lawmakers were doing so instead of addressing “America’s gun violence epidemic” and he accused them of serving “their role as Gun Industry’s little [expletive]!”
Oliver, who was with his wife Patricia Oliver, later stood up during the “ATF Overreach” U.S. House committee hearing and actually shouted at the Republican lawmakers, “You are full of [expletive] — all of you!”
Video shows U.S. Capitol police officers removing the grieving Parkland father from the hearing room and pinning him on the ground in the hallway during the arrest.
A USCP officer told ABC News that Oliver was “resisting” arrest, but Patricia Oliver, who witnessed it all, said her husband was not violent. A video shows him shouting while compliant.
A 19-year-old former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student with mental health issues used an AR-15-style rifle to shoot and kill 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver in the third floor of the school’s building 12 during the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre.
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Florida, left the hearing room to tell the officers that Oliver was one of the fathers who had lost a child at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“MANNY IS A HERO. He didn’t deserve this,” Frost wrote on Twitter. “The Republican Chair of this committee just called him a narcissist. Disgraceful.”
The Oliver family has been advocating for gun control at the state and federal level since the tragedy that they believe could have been prevented had the 19-year-old shooter, who had a history of mental illness and violence at school, not had access to the AR-15-style rifle that he purchased himself legally in Broward County.
Reps. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, accused ATF of “curtailing the ability of lawful gun owners to exercise their Second Amendment rights” and President Joe Biden’s administration of “weaponizing the ATF to advance a left-wing gun control agenda without regard for fundamental fairness or constitutional rights.”
Fallon is the chairman of the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs.
Biggs is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance.
Their hearing’s witnesses included Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow of the Heritage Foundation, and Alex Bosco, the inventor of the pistol stabilizing brace.
Watch one of the witness’ videos
ABC News
Related social media
Here is @manueloliver00 being arrested for speaking out at a committee hearing. His son, Jaoquin, was shot to death in Parkland, Fl.
MANNY IS A HERO. He didn’t deserve this. The Republican Chair of this committee just called him a narcissist. Disgraceful. pic.twitter.com/6jccYvesHb
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) March 23, 2023
This is a developing story. Torres contributed to this report from Miami and Kennedy from Washington.
