Yucaipa Councilmember Causes Controversy by Grabbing Shotgun and Joining Business Owners During Protests

A Yucaipa City Council member is once again involved in a big controversy.

This time, it involves social media pictures at a police brutality protest from earlier this month. Those pictures show several men standing outside businesses with rifles in their hands, and a councilman was also there with his gun.

The scene on June 1 in uptown Yucaipa featured a fight erupting during a police brutality protest. Investigators have now released pictures of these two men, accused of using a baton and also a taser during the fighting. They are now wanted for felony battery.

"Issues of racism are very palpable in this town whether it's overt or implicit," Arianna Huhn, a Yucaipa resident, said.

Huhn says there was also something else disturbing while people were protesting in her city. She referred us to these pictures of men outside businesses armed with rifles.

One of them is city council member Bobby Duncan, who admitted during a Monday council meeting that he did in fact bring a shotgun to protect restaurants and stores from vandalism and looting.

"I think he's proven several times that he is unfit for service in a public office," Huhn said.

Huhn was referring to another controversy last year, when then-mayor Duncan made and apologized for anti-immigrant and anti-muslim comments on his Facebook page. Those comments have since been taken down.

Said Huhn, "I think he should be pressured to step down."

"Bobby Duncan as an individual has the right to express himself," said Yucaipa Mayor David Avila. "He has his constitutional rights to say what he feels."

Avila said that he would not ask for Duncan's resignation. He also showed NBCLA social media posts that contained profanity and featured some people threatening to cause damage and chaos in Yucaipa during the protesting.

Avila says Duncan and the business owners grabbed guns because they were reacting to those possible threats of violence.

"The law specifically states that you can't have weapons in the public area that includes the sidewalks and the streets," the mayor said. "However, on private property, you are allowed to carry."

But Huhn says Yucaipa has a police force, and she believes the armed men crossed the line, accusing them of using guns to intimidate demonstrators in what should have been peaceful protesting.

Huhn said, "The individuals who were out there with their guns felt that they were above the law."

NBCLA reached out to Duncan but did not receive a response.