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A Minnesota father caught on camera shoving conservative reporter Savanah Hernandez to the ground during a chaotic anti-ICE protest says he was defending his wife and daughter and insists his family is "absolutely not violent."
"We are absolutely not violent people. In fact, we tend to shy away from it," Chris Ostroushko told podcast host Brian Shapiro in his first interview since the viral incident.
"In fact, that day, you'll see I was not even up in the front at all during this whole event. I just stayed back and kind of watched what was going on," he added.
Ostroushko, his wife DeYanna and daughter Paige were seen on camera in an altercation with TPUSA reporter Savanah Hernandez outside the Whipple building in Minnesota on April 11.
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Hernandez was covering the protest for "f--- ICE day" when she says demonstrators surrounded her after realizing she was affiliated with Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, Hernandez strongly disputed the family's account and said the Ostroushkos were the aggressors.
"I would just say if I hit them first, it would be on camera," Hernandez said. "There's multiple angles of Paige walking up to me as I'm standing by myself. And also her mom is the first person who came up to start harassing me."
Hernandez said DeYanna Ostroushko was "pressing her body up against me and shoving me multiple times," while "her husband then shoved me from behind and started screaming in my ear." She said that happened before "Chris Ostroushko then instructed his daughter on camera to go and 'blow the whistle in my effing ear.'"
"At no point was I walking up to these people," Hernandez said. "All three of them walked up to me. The mother and father shoved me first and then instructed their daughter to come assault me."
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Hernandez also rejected the claim that she hit Paige first. She said that after Paige moved within inches of her ear and blew a whistle, she only raised her hand to create space and tried to walk away, but she says the Ostroushkos "refused to leave me alone."
"Every single time they attacked me was while I was trying to leave," she added.
DeYanna Ostroushko, however, told Shapiro that Hernandez instigated the clash and that the family was defending itself.
"I wasn't violent at all. I was trying to protect my daughter while at the same time trying to de-escalate the situation," DeYanna said. "When I was assaulted, that's when my husband said, 'That's enough, don't eff with my family.'"
DeYanna claimed Hernandez "backhanded" Paige before Chris pushed her.
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"So after that happened, she started to move out of that area… Paige was moving out with her, and she had punched Paige again, so that was a second assault, and then Paige pushed her to defend herself, and then I yelled at Paige and I said, 'Paige, get back here.' And she said, 'Mom, she punched me.' And that's when I said, 'Don't effing touch my daughter,' and that's when she grabbed me by the throat," DeYanna said.
Trisha Pohland, one of the family's attorneys, backed that version on the podcast.
"Based off what I've seen, she went and hit Paige in the face when Paige was blowing a whistle… which she has every right to do and Savanah was the one that hit her," Pohland said.
Hernandez said she later sought medical treatment.
"Yeah, I went and I sought medical attention and they did tell me that I do have a concussion and multiple sprains," she told Fox News Digital.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and Vice President JD Vance have also confirmed that the FBI has opened an investigation into the assault on Hernandez.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office told Fox News Digital that the case remains under investigation and that it recommended charges Monday against Paige Marie Ostroushko, Lorenzo Amadeo Garcia and Christopher Ostroushko in connection with the assault of a journalist.
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The Hennepin County Attorney's Office told Fox News Digital it had received three case submissions Monday and that they are "currently under review for potential charging."
James Cook, one of the Ostroushkos' attorneys, told Fox News Digital that no charges had yet been filed against Chris and that he would not plead guilty.
Hernandez said she had not yet heard directly from county prosecutors, but said the sheriff's office told her it "did not feel like they had sufficient evidence to charge Deanna and [was] not recommending charges against her."
The Ostroushko family says they have been doxed since the incident went viral and have lost jobs, despite not being arrested at the time of Shapiro's interview.
"We're getting death threats, they're threatening to rape my wife, threatening to rape Paige," Chris said. "They're threatening to come to our house and burn our house down…"
He added that he wished no ill will toward Hernandez.
"You could say 'This was bad.' Some people could say, 'This isn't bad.' Either way, it doesn't give people the right to destroy people's lives. It's never even crossed my mind to try to destroy her life," he said.
