Police officers in Huntsville, Ala., launched rubber bullets and tear gas at a peaceful crowd demonstrating by a park in the city’s center Wednesday evening, creating a chaotic scene.
Officials said an official permit for the protest had expired an hour earlier and protesters had refused to leave.
“What you saw tonight was probably the most extreme patience I’ve ever seen with people who wouldn’t do what we say and were breaking the law,” Huntsville police lieutenant Michael Johnson told AL.com.
Crowds this week in Huntsville, one of the state’s largest cities, have been calling on city leaders to take down a Confederate monument outside the county courthouse. Gathering outside that building — its steps now fortified — on Wednesday, they rallied in a nearby park and chanted to protest the death of George Floyd.
After 6:30 p.m., little seemed to change, according to video by Ian Hoppe of AL.com. Police silently watched the demonstrators from the courthouse steps, and the protesters below dared them to take a knee in solidarity.
But shortly before 8 p.m., officials formed a riot line at an intersection directly behind the protesters. The crowd, ordered to disperse, reassembled across from the riot line instead.
“I can’t breathe,” the crowd chanted, and then, “We are peaceful.”
As the riot police strapped on gas masks, they released a piercing siren. Helicopters and drones circled overhead, Hoppe said on Twitter, and protesters began chanting, “F— the police!”
Rubber bullets and canisters of tear gas followed moments later, with some of the searing chemical agents enveloping a small, screaming girl Hoppe estimated to be about 3 years old.
Some protesters screamed in pain, and a line of police cars drove through the street, sirens blazing. “Hands up, don’t shoot,” some in the crowd yelled.
Johnson, the police lieutenant, claimed to AL.com that authorities saw individuals with guns or taking unknown objects from their backpacks. One officer on the scene received a minor injury to his head, and 24 people were arrested, he said.
Huntsville police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post
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