A Denver photojournalist with credits and features in several local publications—and ties to socialist congressional candidate Melat Kiros—was arrested for allegedly kicking a counterprotester to the ground during a chaotic anti-ICE student walkout.
Students who ditched school to oppose ICE on September 4 quickly turned violent, mobbing a handful of counterprotesters and prompting at least three hospitalizations. Two were arrested for graffiti, while an adult, Armando Geneyro, was arrested for simple assault, according to the Denver Police Department.
Geneyro took a counterprotester's sign and kicked him "in the right leg making the victim fall on the ground," a police report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon states. He was handcuffed at the scene after the victim provided police with video footage of the attack, "but he was then released after being issued a citation," a spokesperson said. Police were "unable to provide the video" because it's part of "an open court case," the official added.
Other footage, however, places Geneyro immediately next to several violent incidents. In one video posted by the Peak News, he is seen encroaching on a counterprotester being swarmed by students and pelted with water bottles and is later part of a group surrounding an independent journalist who gets knocked to the ground and has his camera stolen.
Geneyro appears close to Kiros, who is widely expected to succeed Rep. Diana DeGette after defeating the 15-term incumbent in June's Democratic primary for Colorado's deep-blue First Congressional District. Kiros also attended the anti-ICE protest, where she called the truant students "brave" and accused "this fascist administration and this rogue agency" of "kidnapping our neighbors and throwing them into concentration camps."
At Kiros's election night party, Geneyro, a military-veteran-turned-conscientious-observer who until recently worked for Denver Public Schools' student equity office, was granted close access to her and Hasan Piker, an influential figure on the political far-left who has said that "America deserved 9/11."
Kiros has also co-published several Instagram posts with Geneyro, including one in which he endorses the socialist candidate and praises her for her anti-Israel positions. Kiros replied that she "couldn't be more honored to have this endorsement." She also follows at least three Instagram accounts associated with him and posed for a photo at a wine event he runs.
Colorado publications—including the Colorado Sun, Denver Post, and the health equity-focused Colorado Collective—have routinely used Geneyro's photography in their reporting. He has also been profiled by several local news outlets such as Westword and Denverite for capturing Latino and hip-hop cultures in Denver. The city government, the airport, and History Colorado, a museum run by the state of Colorado, have also featured his work, while a city councilman commissioned him to take photos of Denver to use as Zoom backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neither Kiros nor Geneyro responded to requests for comment, nor did the news outlets that publish his photos.
Geneyro has said he takes photos of protests because it's his way to "voice how I feel about certain issues and certain topics and how I want to lend my support when it comes to advocating for those issues." No news outlets credited him with photos from the September 4 rally or Kiros's party, suggesting he was attending in a personal capacity.
Several other adults with histories of left-wing disruption encouraged the student at the walkout to attack the counterprotesters, video captured by a producer for the Wayne's Word Podcast shows. Laura Gonzalez—who earlier this year faced harassment charges for using a bullhorn to repeatedly call the leader of the Jewish group that was firebombed in an antisemitic attack a "genocidal cunt" and for berating a Boulder city councilman and allegedly pushing his wife over his refusal to condemn Israel—told one group, "Don't complain when the kids come at you," then shouted, "Another Nazi's trying to come into your camp, kids!"
After several dozen agitators pushed the counterprotesters and independent journalists out of the park, Gonzalez stood in front of the teens holding an Israeli flag with blood strewn on it as they continued throwing water bottles. She shouted, "You get what you deserve, Nazis." She was flanked by Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, an illegal immigrant and activist who gained international attention when she spent months hiding in a Denver church to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration. ICE detained her in 2025, but she was released after nine months.
The pair chanted "Fuck ICE" with the students before a third activist, Emma Landis, joined them. She walked into the street and started beckoning the students, who followed suit and again charged the counterprotesters and began brawling with one. Landis, meanwhile, said she wants "to see happiness and health and peace and calmness with everybody's lives" after an off-duty employee of a detention center shot her in the foot during a demonstration earlier this year. The employee said protesters threatened his children and called him and his colleagues "Nazis" and "race traitors."
Gonzalez, Vizguerra-Ramirez, and Landis did not respond to requests for comment.
Rep. Jeff Crank (R., Colo.) has asked the Justice Department to investigate the violence at this month's anti-ICE rally.
