Journalist ‘Attacked’ at Colorado State Capitol by Protesters. Witnesses Tell a Different Story.
Photojournalist Andrew Moura claimed he was the victim, but multiple sources report he may have been the aggressor.
During a protest on August 2, 2025, photojournalist Andrew Moura found himself at the center of an altercation that broke out within the protest. In a report from WestWord magazine, Moura claimed a protester "put his hand on [Moura's] lens" before the crowd began "swarming" him. Later, he says, "I wasn't talking to anybody at all. I don't know anybody at all. I was just taking pictures, and this happened."
When this story broke, commenters on Instagram responded, stating his claims were false and that he was grouping people in the crowd. McKenzee Hales commented, "Moura groped multiple protesters. Grabbed a protester by the neck. I directly witnessed this. The story being spun is false."
Multiple other commenters confirmed that they also witnessed these events that led up to the confrontation. When we asked commenter Christy A what they witnessed, they said, "I heard someone yell 'hey' and then all of a sudden, I saw a protester defending themselves against this supposed photographer." Christy was happy to provide video evidence of the altercation she captured during a TikTok live broadcast. She told us, "I caught it all on live where the photographer put their hands on the protester first."
When we reviewed the video, we saw protesters approach the photographer and hold their hands in front of his camera, attempting to block him from taking photos. We spoke with another person who wished to remain anonymous. They told us, "He was starting to argue with some other protesters and taking pictures of people without masks, so I wasn't sure what he wanted those pictures for." They also told us that Moura had been in the crowd throughout the protest and that "nobody was giving him an issue." According to them, and other commenters, after the protest ended, Moura was walking around taking close-up photos of people who had taken off their masks, and asking if they were American before telling them they didn't look American.
From the people we've spoken with, the group told him to get lost and that he was "threatening to hit people with his camera" before they began to block the view from his camera by standing and holding their hands in front of the camera lens.
From here, things continue to escalate. Despite being told to leave the protesters alone, Moura continued to try to move through the crowd. At one point in the video, he's shown shoving protesters before striking another in the face with what appears to be a closed fist. This moment is when the crowd begins to turn and starts pushing him away from them; the protester he assaulted returns several swings as he inches away. Moura then reapproaches the crowd before engaging with another protester. The two appear to exchange swings, and Moura retreats a short distance while the crowd begins collectively chanting "GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!" Despite being surrounded by the crowd, Moura continues antagonizing the crowd before starting to swing at another protester. But he hesitates when the protester raises his fists in defense. Moura eventually makes his way up the hill towards Colorado State Patrol officers who have arrived at the top of Capitol Hill. As he approaches the officers, a smaller group of protesters follows while yelling at the officers that he had assaulted and groped multiple people. CSP told protesters they'd look at the cameras to confirm this as they walked away following Moura toward their vehicles. [reach out to CSP for comment]
While preparing this article, we attempted to locate any contact information for Mr. Moura for comment. During our investigation, we found several social media pages deactivated with cached search data that aligned with what we know about Mr. Moura and a listing in a press photographers organization. We sent an email to the address found during our investigation, but it had also been deactivated and was unable to be delivered.
