A couple has been indicted for allegedly throwing a large firework at police and dropping two homemade smoke bombs in April during a University of Pittsburgh debate over transgenderism, the Justice Department announced Friday.
The couple, 36-year-old Brian DiPippa and his wife. 40-year-old Krystal DiPippa, were indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, according to CBS News. Brian was also charged with using an explosive to commit a federal felony, the outlet reported
The two were part of around 100 demonstrators who gathered on campus to protest of a debate between conservative commentator Michael Knowles and libertarian pundit Brad Polumbo, according to CBS News. The two debated the proposition “Should transgenderism be regulated by law?” Knowles was originally set to debate transgender author and academic Dierdre McCloskey, who withdrew just days before the April 18 event, accusing Knowles of “stirring up hatred and violence,” Pitt’s University Times reported.
Video of the protests shows smoke exploding from a device, though it is not clear from the footage whether the DiPippas deployed that particular smoke bomb. (RELATED: ‘Stop Grooming Our Kids’: Protesters Clash Over Pride Month Assembly At LA Elementary School, Video Shows)
A Pitt student, Lili Orozco, who had been instrumental in bringing Knowles to campus, detailed her experiences with the protests on an episode of the Daily Caller YouTube show “The Reaction with Chrissy Clark.”
“They were just harassing me, and literally like two minutes after that I’m walking towards the event and somebody completely just tosses a smoke bomb at us. It lands in the bushes. Thankfully it didn’t hit anybody,” Orozco said. “Everybody ran back because, like, at this point you’re just seeing a bunch of smoke … so everybody ran back, including the cops. And once the cops ran back, the protesters started knocking over the barricades, so they were pushing on them and they almost made their way through.”