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<\/a><\/p>\nThe \u201cfree Karmelo\u201d statement was in reference to Karmelo Anthony, a 19-year-old Black high school student from North Texas who murdered a white high school student, Austin Metcalf, at a track meet in April 2025. Anthony was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison June 9. The case has drawn national attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown and Longview city officials hosted a press conference Wednesday to address the bar assault and related online attention, saying police will seek the truth and urging people not to let hatred and division divide the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Numerous people online have asked whether suspects in the case can be charged with a hate crime. Texas does not have a hate crime statute, however, Brown said, so such charges cannot be filed.<\/p>\n
Under Texas law, punishments can be enhanced for crimes committed by prejudice or bias.<\/p>\n
The investigation into the case is ongoing, Brown said. Longview police are in communication with the FBI regarding the case because of online conversations \u201cconcerning retaliation, division and attacks between members of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny credible threat, any attempt to organize violence and any effort to intimidate members of the community will be taken seriously and investigated appropriately,\u201d Brown said during Wednesday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n
ORIGINAL STORY:<\/p>\n
The Longview Police Department is investigating a recent assault at a Longview bar that has attracted viral online attention.<\/p>\n
One arrest has been made in connection with the incident at Whiskey J\u2019s bar, and the investigation remains active, Officer LaDarian Brown said during a Wednesday news conference. He was joined by Mayor Kristen Ishihara and fellow city leaders during the event at the police department.<\/p>\n
Police released few details about the incident during the news conference and did not take questions from the media. However, Brown said the incident appears to be isolated.<\/p>\n
Sammie Lee, who described herself as a new Longview resident, posted on Facebook on June 21 that she was assaulted at Whiskey J\u2019s by three \u201crandom women\u201d who yelled \u201cfree Karmelo.\u201d Lee said she had not interacted with those women in any way before the assault.<\/p>\n
Lee posted photos on social media that showed her injuries, Her post has been shared widely and by prominent social media personalities.<\/p>\n
The \u201cfree Karmelo\u201d statement was in reference to Karmelo Anthony, a 19-year-old Black high school student from North Texas who murdered a white high school student, Austin Metcalf, at a track meet in April 2025. Anthony was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison June 9. The case has drawn national attention.<\/p>\n
Brown told television station CBS19 that a suspect arrested in connection with the incident at Whiskey J\u2019s is Ciarrianne Fuller, 21, of Longview.<\/p>\n
She was booked Tuesday into the Gregg County Jail and released Wednesday on $20,000 bond, charged with assault causes bodily injury.<\/p>\n
Brown said during Wednesday\u2019s news conference that the incident has \u201cunderstandably caused concern in the community\u201d and that police will seek the truth during the investigation.<\/p>\n
A June 21 Facebook post by Whiskey J\u2019s acknowledged the incident and said it took place in the parking lot after the people involved had left the establishment. The bar\u2019s operators are cooperating with police, and the incident was outside the range of the bar\u2019s security cameras, according to the statement.<\/p>\n
Whiskey J operators said they would not speculate about the incident and that it does not reflect the values of the establishment.<\/p>\n
Brown said police are aware of \u201csocial media conversations concerning retaliation, division and attacks between members of our community.\u201d Those statements are being reviewed by law enforcement, and there is no broader threat to the public at this time, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny credible threat, any attempt to organize violence and any effort to intimidate members of this community will be taken seriously and investigated appropriately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Brown said residents should not allow \u201crumors to outrun facts\u201d or allow fear to cause more damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cFolks, this is not who we are,\u201d he said. \u201cThe community can only thrive when there is unity among us. This department and this community believes in accountability, and we also believe in truth. This department wants the facts, works for the facts and works towards the facts, and then we govern ourselves according to the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said people should not seek retaliation or let social media become the judge and jury in the matter. He cautioned people not to allow outside voices to stir \u201chate, confusion and division in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe responsibility of keeping peace in Longview belongs to all of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two more suspects in a June 21 assault at a Longview bar surrendered to police Thursday. Dejae Brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-726738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}