A man from Texas, who was attacked while holding a sign in memory of the late conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at Texas Tech University, has decided to speak out.
Cameron Payne shared with the Daily Mail that he was simply holding a sign that read ‘RIP Charlie Kirk’ at the university on Friday when Camryn Giselle Booker, 18, confronted him and began causing a disturbance.
Booker was later captured on video jumping and chanting offensive remarks just a short distance from where Payne was standing in the designated free speech area at the school.
‘I tried to explain to her, “If you don’t like him, please walk away,”‘ Payne said.
At first, he said it seemed like she was going to leave him alone as she walked off.
But she came back multiple times, and Payne said he was ‘growing concerned’ for those who gathered around him to pray.
That is when, he said, he took out his phone and started filming.
“Evil is real people, and it kind of looks like that,” Payne remarks in the video, which spurred Booker to confront him. Payne asks her why she’s exhibiting such hostility.
The image caption detailed that Cameron Payne was at Texas Tech University with his sign when the incident with Camryn Giselle Booker unfolded as she began causing a commotion.
She was caught on camera jumping up and down and chanting ‘ F*** y’all homie dead, he got shot in the head’ at a vigil for Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot dead at Utah Valley University last Wednesday. He is pictured in March
Booker, while dancing, reiterated the question to Payne and then pressed her phone in his face, leading him to politely ask her to “back up, please.”
At that point, Booker asked him to ‘not push the camera in my face’ – to which he responds: ‘You walked up to me. I don’t want this. I said “Rest in peace.”‘
‘OK and I can do this too,’ Booker then says, as she continues to push her phone in his face.
‘I want to be left alone,’ Payne could be heard saying, before someone off-screen tells Booker that she is being emotional.
‘I’m not being emotional, ma’am. Don’t tell me what I am and what I’m not,’ Booker shoots back. ‘You could get out of my face ’cause I can tell you what you are, but you won’t like it.’
Payne and the woman off-screen then continue to tell her she is being overly aggressive and emotional – at which point Booker accuses them of being racist.
‘I’m not being aggressive,’ she says in the video. ‘My voice is very calm. You’re calling me aggressive because I’m a black woman,’ which Payne denies.
The situation then escalated when Booker was caught on camera slapping his hat off – right in front of three officers.
‘They asked me if I wanted to pursue charges,’ Payne recounted. ‘I said “no.” I don’t want her to screw her life up over this.’
But because the Texas Tech Police Department witnessed the altercation, Booker was arrested and charged with one count of assault.
Payne said he tried to tell Booker to simply walk away, but she kept returning
Booker was eventually then taken into custody and was charged with one count of assault
In the aftermath, Payne said he decided to post the video online to warn people: ‘Hey don’t touch people and don’t dance on the graves of the dead.’
‘I put it on the Internet saying “Please pray for this girl,”‘ he recounted, noting that he worked diligently to delete any comments about her race or appearance.
‘I didn’t want to get her in trouble,’ Payne insisted, choking up as he spoke. ‘I just wanted to show that there is evil out there that is driven by political ideology.’
He also said his only goal in holding the sign reading ‘RIP Charlie Kirk’ with photos of the late commentator with his family was to let ‘other students can see that that murder was horrific, it was sickening and there’s nothing wrong [with being upset over his death].
‘I wanted people to know it is OK to grieve.’
Booker was released on a $200 bond but was also expelled from Texas Tech
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since declared that Booker ‘definitely picked the wrong school to taunt the death of Charlie Kirk’
Booker has been released on a $200 bond for her actions at the school on Friday, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Daily Mail.
She has also been expelled from Texas Tech University, school officials told Fox 4.
‘Any behavior that denigrates victims of violence is reprehensible, has no place on our campus and is not aligned with our values,’ they said.
‘Federal law prevents Texas Tech University from commenting on individual student conduct matters,’ the school officials noted, but said: ‘We take all reported violations seriously and address them under university policy and the law.’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since declared that Booker ‘definitely picked the wrong school to taunt the death of Charlie Kirk.’
In a follow-up post, he shared a photo of Booker being taken into custody, writing: ‘This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech.
‘FAFO,’ he wrote, using an acronym for ‘F*** around and find out.’
Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Cody Campbell reposted that statement on X, and said: ‘We are proud of our values and are not afraid to stand up for them.’
But Payne said Booker’s arrest is ‘nothing to cheer – a girl threw away her life over this and none of this is good.
‘I just don’t want people to die,’ he said, adding he hopes Booker ‘can change her ways.’
