A man who was with Paul Kessler just prior to the moment Kessler was assaulted by a pro-Hamas agitator at a demonstration in Thousand Oaks, California held a press conference Tuesday afternoon in which he described their interactions with the man who hit Kessler with a bullhorn, and others. As RedState reported Tuesday, the two men were tailed by a few men in the pro-Hamas contingent; Jonathan Oswaks confirmed that at the press conference, saying, “He stalked us.”
Oswaks, who, like Kessler, is Jewish, said he met Kessler through the Nextdoor app just a few weeks prior to Kessler’s death, and the two attended a demonstration on the same corner a week prior to observe what was happening. On that date, October 29, a man pushed Oswaks into the street (which is a busy street with four lanes of travel in each direction) before brandishing a pistol at him.
The man pictured above is the man Oswaks says pulled a gun on him. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department was called, but the man was gone by the time officers arrived.
(Instagram video from the October 29th protest can be viewed in this story: BREAKING: Videos From Pro-Hamas Rally Where Paul Kessler Was Killed Show Just How Vile His Attackers Are)
On November 5, Oswaks and Kessler arrived at the intersection more than an hour before the pro-Hamas demonstrators were set to arrive and sat at a fountain on one corner, in front of Paul Martin’s American Grill. Shortly after they arrived, Oswaks said:
I get a phone call from a friend, and he said, “Hey, I see your face on social media live. You’re being watched.” And I look up and I see two men and then three men sitting on the bench 90 degrees from us.
One of those men I recognize as the murderer. The other man was an extreme agitator. And the other fellow was just a young fellow. I couldn’t tell much about him. He didn’t look like the guy that pulled a gun on me.
Later they split up and Kessler remained at the corner with the Shell station while Oswaks took the American flag and the Gadsden flag across the street. The three men shortly came to the corner where Oswaks was and the suspect got in his face.
Paul insisted on holding the Israeli flag…. Paul was a lot smaller than me. He was like David. He was proud to hold that flag against the giant.
He told me that he did a little research, and in these kinds of protests somebody putting a megaphone and putting it in your ear for purposes of harassing you is an assault….
“Nope, we’ve been through this before, Jon. I’m holding the Israeli flag.” So I crossed the street holding the two flags that I had.
It wasn’t long before the men that were videoing me and Paul stood behind me…with a megaphone in my ear exactly the way he told me it was gonna happen. The murderer was standing behind me with the megaphone in my ear. I turned around and said, “Get that f**king thing out of my ear. Back up.” He backed up. He said, “Can I get you a water? I know you’ve been out here for a long time.” I told him, “I don’t want a f**king thing from you except space. Get back.”
The man got back, Oswaks said, but moved his focus to another target.
He crossed over the street, because, as I said, he stalked us. He got nowhere with the bigger guy, so he went for the smaller guy. He came over here with the megaphone in his hand to do the same thing.”
An eyewitness who spoke to RedState on condition of anonymity said that Kessler was assaulted within five minutes of the man with the megaphone arriving on that side of the street; he believes the man sought Kessler out. Oswaks continued:
I’m watching over there [gesturing to Shell gas station] what’s going on…. I’m looking this way, and I could hear the noise starting. Then all of a sudden I see a punch. The reason I know that I could see the punch was because it was the white megaphone flying through the air. But I didn’t know what happened.
Oswaks didn’t know until after the ambulance left that it was Kessler who was assaulted, because he was keeping additional pro-Hamas agitators from crossing the street to go to the Shell station. Once Oswaks discovered that his friend was the one who’d left in the ambulance, he went to the hospital and at that time spoke with law enforcement. He’s justifiably upset that the incident the week prior wasn’t investigated more fully, and that it didn’t prompt a more robust police presence for the November 5 protest.
Vital information was brought forward in this press conference, though, showing the intent of the man with the megaphone (who I believe I’ve identified as a local community college professor who’s heavily involved with the Muslim Student Association there), and showing that there was some level of individual targeting involved. It’s going to be difficult for authorities to ignore the evidence since it’s out there in the public square now.
