Austin Police have filed charges against a San Marcos man accused of illegally carrying a gun during a pro-Palestinian protest on UT campus last month, court records show.
Police said Michael David Maule, 26, violated state law by "intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly" carrying a gun without a license on a school campus. He was charged with a third-degree felony.
Around 6 p.m. on April 29, APD officers responded to a report of two armed demonstrators at the protest on UT's South Lawn. According to an arrest affidavit, police found a loaded gun in Maule's waistband, as well as two loaded magazines and a pocket knife in his pockets. The report that led to the discovery of the weapons occurred after the majority of people arrested that day were taken off campus by police.
Police seized both the gun and ammunition and arrested Maule for criminal trespassing, the affidavit states.
It is unclear from the affidavit how officers found the weapons. Protesters told KUT that UT administrators and police officers checked people’s belongings every time they assembled on the lawn.
KUT reached out to Maule for comment but did not hear back. He was not in the Travis County Jail, according to jail records.
UT had made claims that the demonstrators on campus had "guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel-enforced wood planks, mallets and chains." But prosecutors last week said they hadn't seen any charges to support those claims.
Nearly 140 people were arrested during the protests over the Israel war in Gaza. Almost all of those arrested have been charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.
Maule’s offense is the first felony charge found to be related to the protests.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the gun-related charge came after the majority of the arrests that took place during the protest on April 29.
