Girl says she fought 'old,' 'racist' man with MAGA hat at ICE protest — and excuses fellow teen brawlers

A 16-year-old girl said in a video interview that that she fought the adult male with a MAGA hat at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Texas earlier this week, calling him "old" and "racist" while excusing fellow teen brawlers.

“I didn't think it was going to escalate this far," Alissa, a student at Moe & Gene Johnson High School in Buda, told KEYE-TV. "I didn't think that he was going to be capable to even think to hit a minor. I didn't think he was actually going to get out of his vehicle. So in the moment I reacted."

'I'm not gonna let, like, [an] old man, a racist man, like, say something to a minor.'

Alissa told the station she saw another female juvenile kick the man's truck amid a verbal argument between them Monday afternoon.

“She kicks the truck. She just kicks the truck one time, and that's it," Alissa added to KEYE. "That's the moment that he got mad. He reached for his door. He decides to get off the vehicle and starts to come straight to the girl and starts to attack her.”

She also told the station that "he should have known better. He's an adult. He could have just easily let the girl hit the car, park to the side, call the police, and call it a day. He decided to get out of the car and do what he did."

Alissa added to KEYE that cellphone video another student recorded shows the moment she intervened.

“He kind of got on top of her and started to hit the girl. In that moment, I reacted. I went and I pulled the guy off, and that's when I hit him,” she recalled to the station. “Everybody comes and attacks him, and it escalates from there."

Alissa in her interview with KEYE excused the actions of her fellow teens.

RELATED: Video: All-out brawl erupts between adult male with MAGA hat and more than a dozen apparent HS students at ICE protest

"It's teenagers," she argued to the station. "How was he not going to expect teenagers to act like teenagers? Like, if they have the moment to attack a guy, and they're doing a protest ... like, obviously those kids are gonna take the time out of their day to come defend the girls."

Alissa added to KEYE, "Like, it's a girl. Like, he should have known better, like, not to put his hands on girls, first of all, and he should have known that it's a minor; he should have known that these are kids doing a protest."

She also told the station, "I'm not gonna let, like, [an] old man, a racist man, like, say something to a minor." The reporter interviewing Alissa didn't ask her to clarify why she called the man a racist.

Alissa's father told KEYE he was furious when Alissa told him the man grabbed her by her hair.

RELATED: Cops drop new detail about what led to all-out brawl between adult male with MAGA hat, apparent HS students at ICE protest

“I was really, really mad,” Jose Loredo told the station. “We are grown-ups, you know; we're not little kids. And him hitting girls, females, you're not supposed to do that. He could have just left. No reason to pull over and get off his car.”

Buda Police said 45-year-old Chad Michael Watts of Kyle was charged Tuesday with two counts of assault causing bodily injury, which are Class A misdemeanors.

Hays County Jail records indicate Watts was booked into jail Tuesday and released Wednesday on two surety bonds of $2,500 each. Police told KEYE in a separate story that Watts has no previous record of violent offenses.

While police determined that Watts was the primary aggressor, Officer Matt Schima with the Buda Police Department told KEYE in a video interview that police also are looking into possible charges against the juveniles involved in the brawl and that "we want to be thorough in this investigation to make sure that everybody is held accountable that needs to be held accountable."

KEYE claimed that it had attempted to reach out to Watts for comment but those attempts were unsuccessful.

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