A consultant who advocated for an oil-drilling project at a Long Beach Planning Commission meeting last week was attacked after the meeting by someone who opposed the plan, according to accounts from a witness and authorities.

Police said they’ve arrested the suspected attacker, identified as Travis Swans, 22, of Long Beach, who is now facing a misdemeanor battery charge.

“The attack appears unprovoked and very disturbing,” said Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert.

The meeting that preceded the attack Thursday night was contentious, with one person yelling “You people are death,” after planning commissioners unanimously voted to recommend a project that would allow more oil drilling in southeast Long Beach in exchange for wetlands restoration.

Police said Swans assaulted the victim around 9 p.m. outside City Hall.

“Based on the facts in the police report, this does not appear to be a random attack,” Haubert said. “Rather, the victim was targeted by someone who was displeased with a development project the victim was supporting.”

Mike Murchison, a lobbyist who is working with a team of consultants on the drilling project, said he witnessed the violence.

He said there was screaming and yelling that started inside the council chambers after the vote and continued outside, where a consultant for the project was physically attacked.

Police did not disclose the victim’s name.

Murchison said he and several others were also yelled at and insulted on their walk to the parking garage.

“We were called murderers, told they hope we get cancer and told to go to hell,” he said.

The attacker fled before officers arrived at the scene, but authorities got a description and were able to quickly find him near the intersection of Pine Avenue and Broadway, Long Beach police spokesman Sgt. Brad Johnson said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how badly the victim was hurt. Haubert said authorities are still looking into that and other aspects of the case.

Jail records show Swans was booked into jail Thursday night and released on $750 bail the next afternoon. He’s scheduled to appear in court to face the battery charge on Dec. 29, records show.

On Tuesday night, Murchison asked the Long Beach City Council to consider increasing security during meetings that are particularly heated.

“Now, I’m used to, in my profession, being yelled at or booed or whatever; it comes with the territory of what I do,” he said. “What doesn’t come with the territory of what I do is to go outside, walk toward my car quietly and be verbally assaulted and followed to the garage. That kind of thing needs to stop.”

Vice Mayor Rex Richardson briefly responded to Murchison and told him it is already on the city’s radar.

“The tone has become, in the public discourse, just more and more negative, and we are having those conversations behind the dais about, legally, ‘Where is that line?'” he said. “We’ve had council members threatened, we’ve had public violence right here in the chambers, and honestly, we do need to have that conversation.”

The project that sparked last week’s altercation involves a proposal to abandon drilling operations on more 150 acres of land in the Los Cerritos Wetlands area in exchange for the opportunity to drill new wells and to build a pipeline on nearby properties, including the site that’s home to seasonal pumpkin patch and Christmas tree operations near Pacific Coast Highway. The project’s proponent is Beach Oil Minerals Partners, a subsidiary of oil field operator Synergy Oil & Gas.

The proposal also calls for the restoration of wetlands in the northern area of the existing oil field and for restored land to be placed under the control of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, a government agency. The plan requires approvals from the City Council, California Coastal Commission and other state and federal authorities.