in which martin shkreli gets poop thrown at his face pic.twitter.com/lBLljnMuep
— Kris Hooks (@Captain_Hooks) January 14, 2017
Martin Shkreli is well-known. Not popular. On Friday, the infamous pharmaceutical executive got hit with what seemed to be feces, according to a witness who posted footage to Twitter. As seen in the footage above, someone then called him a “piece of s—t.” He was speaking to reporters when it happened on Friday at UC Davis.
Shkreli was headlining a now-rescheduled event with Breitbart editor and anti-immigration hardliner Milo Yiannopoulos. It was supposed to happen on Friday, but it sparked huge student-led protests since Yiannopoloulos is a far-right columnist who built his career criticizing liberal politics (and allegedly going overboard to full-on persecution). Meanwhile, Shkreli is best known as that guy who increased the price of pyrimethamine, a potentially life-saving medicine that treats people with compromised immune systems, from $13.50 to $750 a pill.
UC Davis officials claimed that Davis College Republicans, a student group hosting the event, canceled it.
“The decision was made at about 7:00 pm, 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the event, after a large number of protesters blocked access to the venue, and it was determined that it was no longer feasible to continue with the event safely,” the school said on Friday. The school announced that just one person was arrested, but didn’t detail the alleged offense.
“Despite some reports, there were no broken windows or other property damage during the protest,” they say.
Yiannopoulos disputes this, however. He claims campus officials ended the event.
“Left-wing thugs scared UC Davis into canceling my event last night by damaging property, hurling excrement at guests and starting fights,” he wrote on Saturday.
We reached out to university spokesman Andy Fell about the alleged poop throwing as well as the cancellation dispute. He got back to us with this:
I have seen reports about feces or urine being thrown but to our knowledge that did not happen. There were eggs thrown during the protest, and at the end of the clip you linked I think someone says, “egg.” There were no broken windows or other property damage. One arrest, for resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer.
The organizers (Davis College Republicans) cancelled the event on the advice of UC Davis police that it was not feasible to continue safely.
The event has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. PT on Saturday.
[Screengrab via ABC10]
