Broward County Judge Francis Viamontes sat in the second row at the EMC Expo Center in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday afternoon.
She had a VIP ticket to the 2025 National Speech & Debate Tournament to watch her daughter compete in the Humorous Interpretation Finals category of the highly regarded event. Hundreds were in the auditorium, including students from many schools in Broward County, Viamontes said.
After her daughter had competed, Viamontes was watching the last challenger in the category when she saw a man who looked out of place walk toward the stage, she told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He wore jean shorts, a tank top, a backpack — and a crown of flowers on his head. At first, she thought it might be a skit, given the category. But when she thought he appeared angry, she started to record.
The man made it onto the stage. He loudly yelled the start of a knock-knock joke. That’s the moment the coach of the next competitor told the student to “run away,” Viamontes’ video shared with the South Florida Sun Sentinel shows. The competitor, who was wearing a microphone, asked, “Run away?”
The man then began taking off his backpack. Chaos started to erupt in the room. And Viamontes ran up onto the stage, thinking something dangerous might have been about to unfold, she said.
“I approached on one side, and I saw a man approaching from the back, and we both converged on him,” she said. “The other gentleman who was a parent as well tackled him, and then I came in second and we both held him down.”
Though the video does not record the moment of the tackle, Viamontes can be heard saying, “Call 911” and “Don’t open it. Don’t open the backpack. Just take it away.” A cacophony of shouts and screams is heard in the background.
“I told them, ‘Get it out of here.’ I wasn’t sure if it had a bomb or what. ‘Don’t open it, just get it out of here,’” she said. “I made sure to grab a hold of his hands because he was tucking his hands underneath himself.”
Police detained the man.
In a statement to the Sun Sentinel Thursday night, Des Moines Police said though he did not have any weapons and none were recovered after the disturbance, the man’s “behavior prompted safety concerns” and the event was evacuated.
The police department identified him as Jayden Michael Roccaforte, 22, of Cheyenne, Wyo. He is facing charges of disorderly conduct and possession of a controlled substance.
Many people in the crowd were slightly injured while running away, she said. Her daughter hid with another competitor in a closet backstage.
“It looked very chaotic, the aftermath,” she said. “You saw just drinks spilled everywhere, chairs thrown everywhere, phones thrown everywhere.”
Viamontes attributed her quick action to active shooter training she received in her capacity volunteering as a mock trial coach at American Heritage Schools.
“That training kicked in, and that’s where I made the decision to run on stage and try and do what I can to subdue him,” she said.
The remainder of Thursday’s competition was postponed, according to a statement shared on social media by the National Speech and Debate Association.