Updated on June 24 at 6:30 p.m. to include a statement from the Alamance County Sheriffs Department.
Two men were arrested and charged after an altercation with two Elon University professors during a protest near a Confederate monument outside the Alamance County courthouse, according to the Graham Police Department.
Chadwick Hightower, 48, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and Christopher Overman, 39, was arrested and charged with assault on a female, according to police.
At 8:47 p.m. Saturday, Hightower is seen slapping Elon University Professor Anthony Crider in a video posted on Twitter by his wife, and fellow professor, Megan Squire. While Squire was recording Hightower's arrest, Overman hits her before being arrested himself. Both were released on bond.
Squire teaches computer science at Elon University and is known for her research on online extremism.
Her husband, Crider, is an astrophysics professor and a freelance protest photographer. The video posted on Squire’s Twitter shows Crider taking photos of Confederate protestors.
Crider told Elon News Network in an email that he was “getting some shots of Graham’s mayor” just prior to the altercation, and said “the incident was a bit of a blur, it happened so fast.”
The couple has previously participated in a counter protest to the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
The Graham Police were in the area to maintain peace “between groups of people who had opposing views surrounding the placement of the Confederate monument,” the press release stated.
Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson has acknowledged the incidents that took place at the Confederate monument, according to a press release by the Sheriffs Department. Until there is a lawful order to remove the statue, Johnson said it is the Department's duty is to protect it, according to the press release.
Some demonstrators were seen wearing shirts affiliated with Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County, according to Crider’s Flickr photos. The ACTBAC group was once labeled a neo-confederate hate group by the SPLC.
The assault took place on the corner of West Elm Street and South East Court Square, across the street from the county courthouse and Confederate monument.
The mayor of the city of Graham issued a 9 p.m. curfew and a state of emergency Saturday to prevent the “potential for damage or injury, due to civil unrest”, according to a news release from the city.