Charges filed against biker, Wichita State student in Kwik Shop clash

Misdemeanor charges have been filed against the motorcyclist and a Wichita State University student whose clash at a convenience store last month drew national attention.

Arrest warrants were issued for the motorcyclist, Joseph Bryan, and for Christian Saldana-Banuelos, one of two WSU students who stopped at the Kwik Shop at 21st and Oliver shortly after 3 a.m. on March 12, according to court records.

Saldana-Banuelos and Khondoker Usama, the student body vice president at WSU, were filling their vehicle at the gas pumps near campus when they said they heard a man calling a black person at the convenience store a racial epithet.

911 call from confrontation at Kwik Shop

They said that the man, later identified by police as Bryan, then turned on them, with the clash escalating into a fight. They said the biker called them “brown trash” and then chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” before leaving on his motorcycle.

The 911 call made by Usama appeared to confirm that Bryan was chanting “Trump” as he left.

The case had previously been referred to the district attorney’s office, but Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett determined there were insufficient grounds for felony charges.

The violence didn’t escalate to the level of felony battery, he said, so he could not even consider whether the case was racially motivated. Racially motivated violence can be an aggravating factor in Kansas, he said, but is not a crime in and of itself.

“You still have to establish the crime,” Bennett said. “So why didn’t they charge a hate crime? We don’t have one to charge.”

The misdemeanor warrants issued Friday, however, accuse Saldana-Banuelos of provoking Bryan “to commit a battery or breach of peace” by shouting the name of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders at him, “rolling up his sleeves and stepping toward him, and saying ‘Are we going to fight?’ ”

Surveillance video of Wichita convenience store confrontation

Saldana-Banuelos is charged with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and provoking an assault and/or battery, according to court records.

Bryan also is charged with two misdemeanors, records show: battery and disorderly conduct. He’s accused in the battery count of shoving Usama into Saldana-Banuelos and against a car.

The disorderly conduct charges against both men accuse them of engaging in a fight, knowing that their actions would alarm, anger or disturb one another or others or otherwise disturb the peace.

Police say arrest warrants were issued but there was no evidence from court documents Tuesday that they had yet been served. Neither Bryan nor Saldana-Banuelos had been taken into custody as of Tuesday morning, according to law enforcement documents.

None of the three participants in the altercation responded to requests for comment on Tuesday, although both Usama and Saldana-Banuelos have commented in the past. Saldana-Banuelos said he was standing up to the racial slurs he said he heard.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Charges filed against biker, Wichita State student in Kwik Shop clash."