A Vancouver man is accused of following a group from a Patriot Prayer event to an east Vancouver sports bar Saturday, where a confrontation in the parking lot ended with him striking a man with his vehicle.
But the defense attorney for Charles R. Holliday-Smith contested that version of events during his client’s first appearance Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court.
Attorney Jon McMullen argued that Holliday-Smith did not attend the event in downtown Vancouver or follow the group to the bar; he had gone there to have a beer with a friend after work.
Holliday-Smith, 30, also known as Robbie Smith, is facing allegations of first-degree assault and hit-and-run resulting in injury. He is being held at the Clark County Jail on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 18.
The victim, identified as 38-year-old Shane Moon, was hospitalized for a not life-threatening brain bleed, according to court documents. A GoFundMe page for Moon says he also suffered a fracture to his left temporal bone and a ruptured eardrum.
The incident occurred at about 7 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Charlie’s Sports Bar & Grill, 3315 N.E. 112th Ave., in Vancouver’s Image neighborhood.
According to social media posts, Moon had attended a memorial earlier that day at Esther Short Park for Aaron “Jay” Danielson, the man fatally shot one week earlier in downtown Portland after a rally in support of President Donald Trump.
Moon and some friends said that Holliday-Smith had followed them to the bar from the park. When Holliday-Smith arrived at the bar, they said he began recording the group, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The group said they asked him to stop and said they were uncomfortable due to recent incidents. They said they thought he may be associated with antifa and trying to identify and “dox” them. “Doxxing” is the publishing of someone’s personal information online with malicious intent.
McMullen said in a phone interview after the hearing that Holliday-Smith is not a member of antifa, and to his knowledge, is not affiliated with any activist group.
Holliday-Smith stopped recording after he was contacted by the bar’s security, and he left. Moon and the group followed him outside and asked that he delete the photos and video he had taken. The two parties then got into a verbal altercation, the affidavit says.
Neither police nor court records have stated why Holliday-Smith was recording.
Moon reportedly told Holliday-Smith that he could take photos of him, as well, and started to do so. Holliday-Smith then got into his vehicle, started it and accelerated toward Moon, striking him. Moon was thrown into the air and landed on the pavement, according to the court document.
A witness told police “(Holliday-Smith’s) intent was totally to hit the guy; it looked like he turned into that dude,” the affidavit reads.
Holliday-Smith sped away from the parking lot. One of the witnesses followed him and said he saw Holliday-Smith run multiple red lights before entering state Highway 500. The witness stopped following at that point, the affidavit says.
On Monday night, the Vancouver Police Department announced that Holliday-Smith had turned himself into police.
The GoFundMe page for Moon made no mention of the confrontation or whether he is affiliated with any activist group, though several donors left comments describing him as a “patriot” and criticizing antifa. An administrator for the page confirmed later via email that Moon had attended the memorial for Danielson. The email said Moon is from the Vancouver area.
As of Tuesday morning, the page had raised $12,225 of its $25,000 goal. Among the donors are Proud Boys Western Australia and Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys.
