

BERKELEY — The arrest total from Saturday’s violent clash between protesters supporting or opposing President Donald Trump grew to 23 on Sunday when Alameda County Sheriff’s Office officials released the names of those who were nabbed.

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Photos: Berkeley Trump rally violence, arrests

Sticks, poles among objects banned at Berkeley protests Saturday Police late Saturday originally announced 20 arrests and 11 injuries after fighting broke out at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, where Trump backers and members of the so-called alt-right movement held a “free speech” rally. Opponents of the movement, calling themselves anti-fascists, also were there among the crowd of about 200.

The two sides wasted no time in going after each other with fists, sticks, flagpoles and worse. Eleven people were injured, including one person who was stabbed, police said.

According to the Sheriff’s Office arrest log, seven people were arrested on suspicion of committing felonies, and 16 others were arrested on suspicion of committing misdemeanors. Berkeley police did not return phone calls Sunday, but the Sheriff’s Office confirmed the arrest log.

Michael Hornsby, 27; Willie Morning, 59; Geovanni Ramirez, 32; Tahtanerriah Sessomshowell, 26; Carlos Barbarossa, 29; Luke Dennis, 36; and Robert Peete, 52, face felony charges, according to the log.

“The charges include arrests for assault with a deadly weapon and several other felony assaults,” police said in an announcement Saturday evening, adding that more arrests would likely be pursued after video and social media posts were reviewed.

Police in riot gear were on hand to try to keep the peace, with limited success. During the melee, loud explosions were heard in the crowd, immediately followed by fistfights. BART closed its downtown Berkeley station during the protests.

In its Saturday statement, police said officers tried to protect people and their free speech rights — despite organizers’ lack of a permit — by prohibiting potential weapons, limiting park entry and exit, and sharing citation and arrest risks for rule violations. They put up a plastic barricade in an attempt to keep the opposing sides apart and collected anything that could be used as a weapon. Police had banned metal pipes, baseball or softball bats, lumber or wood of any size, poles, bricks, rocks, glass bottles, pepper spray and other objects.

Despite their efforts, police said officers confiscated pepper and bear spray, knives and mace, an ax handle and a concrete-filled can at Saturday’s protest, and that city staff cleaning the park before the rally found a replica gun.

Saturday’s protest followed a series of demonstrations — both violent and nonviolent — that have swept the country since Trump took office in January.

A March 4 rally and counter-protest in Berkeley, planned by several of the same groups as those who announced this one, also resulted in several injuries and arrests.

In February, a scheduled appearance by former Breitbart News editor and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley was canceled after agitators who infiltrated a large crowd of protesters on campus threw rocks, broke windows and set fires outside the student union building and throughout downtown Berkeley. Some downtown businesses boarded up windows in advance of Saturday’s protest as a precaution.

And Berkeley will be tested again: According to the Daily Cal newspaper, conservative firebrand Ann Coulter has been invited by the College Republicans and bridgeCal to speak on campus later this month.

Anyone with photos or video that could help identify law-breakers may send them to Berkeley police by visiting http://bit.ly/berkvideo.

Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report. Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789