Tension between a gathering of anti-abortion protesters and student onlookers resulted in a fight and two arrests on Library Mall Thursday afternoon.
Aaron Beay, 17, of Fond du Lac, Wis., said he was traveling with the activists and videotaping Thursday's rally.
'I noticed there was a man who was upset about what was going on,' Beay said. After moving closer to document the man's statements and actions, 'he punched the camera out of my hand.'
'[Nearby onlookers] restrained him, because you don't go around punching people,' Beay added.
Beay and UW-Madison freshman Stav Vaisman, who also witnessed the disturbance, estimated the fight to involve 12 to 15 people.
Vaisman said he saw some protestors also join in the fight, attacking a gay man.
'They put him in a chokehold and told him, 'I'm going to send you to hell, sinner,'' Vaisman said.
Two men, William F. Hoffman III, 40, of Montrose, W.Va., and Daniel Holman, 55, of West Allis, Wis., were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
The protestors, who gathered Thursday morning, accumulated a crowd of spectators, several of whom played guitar or bongo drums and sang loudly to muffle the shouts of protestors.
Approximately 20 police officers were at the scene shortly after the scuffle, and several remained on hand afterwards to monitor the situation.
Chuck Spingola, of Newark, Ohio, said that he and his followers travel around the country preaching and protesting abortion and homosexuality. He said they were in Madison on behalf of Missionaries to the Preborn, an organization out of Milwaukee.
'We are here to show love to homosexuals and show they're hellbound,' he said.
Spingola added that he and his fellow activists would be in Madison again Friday and Monday.
