WINDSOR LOCKS -- Conservative writer Lucian Wintrich sat down with FOX61 at Bradley International Airport Wednesday afternoon, before boarding a flight back home to Washington, D.C.
Wintrich, who reports for The Gateway Pundit, was invited to a UConn College Republicans event to give his speech, "It's OK to Be White."
"I couldn't get through half a sentence without these random chants, half of them incoherent," said Wintrich.
Shortly after beginning his speech, video shows a woman take Wintrich's speech from the podium. Wintrich is then seen going after the woman, grabbing her by her shirt to take his paper back. The incident turned chaotic, with people spilling out of the Schenker Lecture Hall.
Wintrich was arrested and charged with breach of peace and was later released. Wintrich said he believes he was well within his rights to get his paper back.
"As a kid from the inner city of Pittsburgh, if somebody takes something from you, I'm going to re-obtain it," said Wintrich.
Wintrich said he was assured prior to his speech that everything would be okay.
"They said listen, 'we're not going to let this get out of control. We're going to keep sort of lines of defense around you'. "None of that happened," said Wintrich.
In reponse, UConn President Susan Herbst released the following statement to FOX61:
"Between the offensive remarks by the speaker who also appeared to aggressively grab an audience member and the reckless vandalism that followed, that was certainly not the case on our campus tonight. We are better than this."
Wintrich said he is now pursuing legal options against the woman who took his papers and the University. Two UConn students said the University is free to invite any speaker they wish.
"I really believe that every student group should be able to kind of bring who they want, you know, as long as it follows UConn's guidelines," said Kailey Crothers, a sophomore.
"Being a Conservative myself, I'm okay with free speech. I'm entirely okay with people expressing their ideas and opinions but getting that disruptive to the point where it causes violence, I think it's a little too much," said Stephen Pawlak, a freshman.
However, the UConn Democrats group disagree and they wrote:
"In inviting this speaker, the UConn College Republicans chose to endorse a branch of their party that is on the wrong side of the party. This speaker did not discuss pertinent issues, but instead chose to bait the protesting audience members with racially charged and sexist language, including slides featuring Hitler."
He said he will be back in Connecticut in a few weeks for a court date, and would consider speaking again at UConn, as long as there was a better conversation about security.
"Maybe I'll speak again while I'm here or try to," said Wintrich.
FOX 61 did also reach out the University's spokesperson regarding how police handled the matter and they said police did separate the crowd that night and safety has always been their top priority.
