Dozens of tires slashed in Butler Co. mall lot after group went to Washington, D.C.

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. — Dozens of cars belonging to people who headed to Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning had their tires slashed in Butler County.

The cars were parked in the Clearview Mall parking lot after the group boarded buses.

Zach Scherer said he organized the trip, and two buses with more than 100 people went to the U.S. Capitol. Their intent was to watch President Donald Trump’s speech and support him.

Scherer said once the speech wrapped up, things turned sour and protesters started storming the Capitol.

“We were on the steps there, pretty close to the front doors to the Capitol, and we just saw, eventually, when Pence came out and said that he would not be abiding with Trump’s decisions here. That’s when you just would see hundreds of people running toward the Capitol building and just storming in the doors,” Scherer said.

It became a very scary and tense situation.

“We kind of just stood our ground, you know, because there was tear gas being thrown. It was difficult to breathe, you know. We were just trying our best to keep together so we didn’t lose anybody with us at the Capitol there at the time,” Scherer said.

One person from the bus trip fell and suffered a head injury. Another experienced a medical emergency on the way home.

Then the group got word that their cars had been vandalized.

“I definitely think it was a targeted attack,” said Rob Singer. “It’s ridiculous what’s happening here.”

Parents told Channel 11 News that some of the cars were parked there by teenagers heading to join the protest that descended into chaos at the U.S. Capitol.

Pennsylvania State police said they are investigating the incident and are asking people to contact them if they returned and discovered that they had been targeted.

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