During the nine years they were together, Anthony and David Vullin saw West Hollywood as their safe place.
They first met at a Mexican restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard and eventually moved in together into a nearby apartment in the famously inclusive city. The couple, who are set to get married in 2022, recently welcomed their first child, Ante, into the world.
So when a stranger approached him on a walk with his newborn on April 16, he said he felt perfectly comfortable answering a few questions from someone claiming to be with CNN. It didn’t take long to realize something was wrong, he said.
“Have you ever heard of the statistics that gay men are more likely to abuse children?” asked 21-year-old content creator Riley Niemi, who later posted a portion of the interview on Instagram, where she has more than 73,000 followers.
Niemi, a vocal supporter of President Trump and a self-described “MAGA influencer,” described the idea of gay parents having children as “weird.”
Video of the incident shows Vulins reacting angrily. David pushed Nimi. Moments later, the couple and at least one other man encountered him again a few blocks away, according to a video published by Niemi to X. In the clip, Neemi questions whether the child is safe with his parents; After this, David was seen punching Neemi on the head several times.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies soon arrested David Vulin on suspicion of battery and felony assault for breaking one of Niemi’s cameras.
But since footage of the incident has spread online, some have questioned whether the wrong person was handcuffed, alleging that it was Niemi who had instigated the attack.
West Hollywood Vice Mayor Danny Hange said city officials will likely draft a letter to the Los Angeles County District. Atty. Nathan Hochman will not file charges against David Vulin.
“What happened to them was unjust. These trolls came to our town and disrupted our way of life and they attacked them for clickbait purposes,” said Hang, who personally called Hochman about the case.
A spokesman for Hochman said he could not comment on the case, which has not been presented for charges by the sheriff’s department.
David Vullin, 32, said in an interview that he had been violently attacked in the past by people who used similar anti-gay language.
He said, “I realized that this person had led us to have a very offensive conversation on camera… My head was spinning. I was overwhelmed with homophobic rhetoric and dehumanizing language meant to provoke some kind of reaction from us.” “If they’re going to say hateful things, what’s going to happen next?”
Based in Temecula, Niemi describes himself online as a political activist. His Instagram Reels often feature him criticizing the LGBTQ+ community. He recently had a friendly chat with Riverside County Sheriff and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco.
In one clip, he asks people on the street if the US government should “deport” transgender people to Venezuela. In another, he harasses a transgender woman in Santa Monica by calling her “sir.”
During a brief interview with The Times earlier this week, Niemi provided his summary of the West Hollywood incident.
Dreamer noted that during the interview he did not touch Vulins or attempt to fight back after the confrontation turned physical.
Video footage shows Vullin pushing Niemi immediately after the streamer claims there are “statistics” that show gay parents are more likely to molest their children. Neemi would not respond to any questions about its provenance of the alleged data, or any other follow-up questions by phone or email.
Published academic research has shown that their claims are not supported by the facts. A 2021 study from the National Institutes of Health found that people who commit child sexual abuse are a “heterogeneous population”, meaning there is no single characteristic that is an indicator that someone is likely to be an abuser.
After the scuffle, the video shows Niemi and his group walking fast on a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard that is home to several nightclubs and bars. Eventually he finds a security guard and asks, “How quickly can you get the police here?”
Within a minute, Vulins and another man catch up to the group and yell at them to leave West Hollywood. The video shows Niemi and his associates repeatedly asking Vulins to “stop following” them.
RJ Dreiling, an attorney for Vullins, said his client was simply “going home. They were on autopilot and in shock… They weren’t thinking about getting into another dispute.”
In the video clip posted by Niemi, he says he is “concerned” for the safety of the couple’s child.
According to the video, David then moves forward and punches Niemi in the back of the head at least twice. Niemi declined to say what, if any, injuries he sustained.
Vulin said the comments about the child’s “safety” disturbed him. At that time Anthony was holding his child in his lap.
He said, “It was a really worrying thing to say… It sent me into a moment of needing to protect myself, protect my family, and put distance between them and these people.”
David Vullin, left, with his husband, Anthony Vullin, feeding their son in their West Hollywood home.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The Vulin family went to the sheriff’s department’s West Hollywood station while Niemi called 911. Vulin was arrested a short time later. Niemi said a $2,000 camera was also damaged in the attack, which would meet the threshold for a felony vandalism charge under California law.
After the punches are thrown, a third man can be seen in the video shouting at Niemi and his companions that they all “deserve to be shot in the head.” David Vullin said that “community members” came out to defend him.
Niemi described the shouting as “criminal menace”.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Shane Chapman said that investigators were “aware” of the prior conflict between Vulin and Niemi, but declined to say whether it had any influence on the department’s decision to arrest.
During a recent City Council meeting, West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman said he would consider sending a letter of support to the District Attorney’s office on behalf of the Vulin family after several residents raised concerns about the incident. Heilman did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Vullins said the incident shattered his illusion of safety in West Hollywood. Both said they have received numerous homophobic messages online and over the phone since Neemi posted the video. Realtor Anthony, 47, who is also chairman of West Hollywood’s Business Licensing Commission, said he had to hide all of his public business listings because of the harassment.
A GoFundMe in support of Vulins Raised over $180,000 for his legal defense. Neemi has started one such effort Asking for “support” has raised only $1,840.
Dreiling said, “I’m very optimistic that we won’t have to go to court. But I will say that it is unacceptable for David and Anthony to have to readjust their lives because of what this man did.” “That night, the wrong person went to jail.”
