Charges filed against two after confrontation at Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Charges have officially been filed against two men accused of gatekeeping the entrance to the June 22 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting.
Witnesses said Edwards Moore Jr. and Leonard Scott III, a retired veteran also known as “Old Ranger,” were handing out numbers to all the people waiting to get into the meeting.
The numbers represented the order in which people could go inside.
Court documents say, “no OSDE staff knew anything about giving out numbers to enter an open meeting.”
When a Tulsa teacher tried to go around the two men, one of them allegedly got physical.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Moore “grabbed” and “began pushing” the woman, “telling her she does not have a number and she cannot go in.”
“And he grabbed her arm and blocked her and swung her and it was very violent and disturbing,” said Ashley Daly, a parent and witness to the alleged assault.
When a Department of Public Safety Security Officer came over to intervene, Moore was seen “aggressively pushing” the officer.
Ultimately, Moore and Scott were escorted outside - along with Sean Cummings, one of the people who confronted the duo about the number system - and the meeting was allowed to proceed.
Related Video above is from July 6, 2023
Now, Moore and Scott are facing multiple charges.
Scott is charged with Disturbing State Business and Obstructing Passage to State Building.
Moore is charged with Obstructing Passage to State Building as well as two Assault and Battery charges for his physical altercations with the teacher and DPS security officer.
KFOR spoke with “Old Ranger” last week. He said he takes full responsibility of what happened. He didn’t realize that basic common sense and stability would apply. He tried to do what’s right to prevent chaos from happening, which ended up occurring. He hopes the people in charge will learn something from this situation to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again.