Wyoming man arrested after causing thousand-person stampede at high school debate tournament

A Wyoming man fired chaos in a national high school discussion tournament after he went on the stage and triggered a thousand people who escaped the authorities in all directions and who were terrified and terrified participants.

22 -year -old Jayden Rocafortte, a national champion four times in speech and debate, was arrested on Thursday, June 19 at the 2025 National Speech and Discussion Tournament in des Moines, des Moines.

A viral video shows that Roccafortte has swung on the stage with a backpack, makes disturbing gestures, and quickly turned into a strange ‘stroke’ joke that panic.

Do you want to hear a joke? ‘Knock hit!’ He asked the crowd before shouting. And crouched on his bag as if he was pulling something on his bag – ‘escape to someone?’ Shortly after, he began to escape from thousands of places.

According to the Des Moines Police, Roccaforte is now charges of irregular behavior and two drugs.

Regional spokesman Mary Quast on Friday, June 20 Cowboy state daily This Roccorte was neither an employee nor a volunteer, and the school had no relationship with the speech and discussion program.

However, contradictory accounts and screenshots tell a different story.

Cowboy State Daily reviewed screenshots, Roccafortte’un East High students and coaches on June 11, added to a group of conversations and remained in the conversation until the incident on Thursday.

After appearing at the National Speech and Discussion Tournament in the 22 -year -old Jayden Roccorte, Iowa, des Moines, he was arrested and caused collective panic and thousands of confluence.

August 2024 Blog post With a applause and discussion, he had previously described Roccafortte as a coaching of Eastern high students after graduating.

Now, Rocafortte, a student from the University of West Kentucky, has been reported to have traveled independently to the tournament – but according to tournament rules, it was seen that he was wearing an orange ‘participant’ strip, which means that he approved the presence of a school.

Both a parent and a student told Cowboy State Daily that Roccafortte was with the Eastern High Team during the day on Thursday – that he traveled to a school area vehicle and even joined students and coaches for dinner.

A student, “ `only hanging with people, ” he said. “ There was no one to coach at that point; We were just going there (performance). ‘

Later in the night, 21:45, East High Chief Coach Marcus Viney sent a E -POSTA to the tournament participants that Roccafortte was a former student of the program, but confirmed that he was traveling to celebrate an important team award.

In the afternoon of Friday, the assistant coach Ashley Schulz sent a group of messages to the students not to talk to journalists: ‘If we communicate with news, we are not allowed to talk to them. The region will comment. Not us. ‘

Despite the efforts of the Cowboy state to clarify the position of the region every day, Viney and other officials did not respond to follow -up requests for comment.