A 27-year-old man has been shot at a demonstration on Capitol Hill, Washington, the Seattle Times has reported.
The disturbing incident occurred just as Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best were wrapping up a news conference regarding police brutality.
As they were concluding their talk, a gunman drove into the crowd and shot an unidentified 27-year-old man. The shooting occurred shortly before 8:30PM.
Coverage of the incident can be seen below:The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center, where he has been listed as being in a stable condition. The gunman was detained by police.
The unnamed gunman was dressed in blue jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a black baseball cap, shot the victim from inside his black car. He then exited the vehicle, gun in hand, and barged through demonstrators toward a line of police officers.
He was then detained and taken into custody.
Sunday night saw protesters gather near the intersection of Eleventh Avenue and Pine Street as people across the country - and the world - continue to call out the systemic injustices carried out against black people, not least seen by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
As well as a call for justice, these ongoing protests are also demanding an end to police brutality and the racism that is so deeply entrenched in America and the western world.
The sudden arrival of the gunman's vehicle caused some demonstrators to shout, while others ran alongside it holding a metal panel in an effort to slow it down.
Witness B.J. Hayes was standing nearby when the car barreled down Eleventh Avenue from Pike Street toward hundreds of protesters. Hayes said:
"I thought he was plowing right into the crowd. I totally thought I was going to see a bunch of bodies flying through the air."
The male victim was shot as he appeared to reach into the driver's window. The Seattle Times reports that he fell backward as the driver exited the car.
Witness Matt McAlman, said he saw the victim raise his fist in the air when asked if he was going to be okay.
"It was empowering to see nothing is going to stop us," McAlman said.
After falling out of the vehicle, the victim was tended to by protesters, who applied a tourniquet to the man's arm. Volunteer medics then walked him to an ambulance.
In a video recorded by Seattle journalist Alex Garland, the victim said: "I heard the gunshot go off in my arm. My whole thing was to protect those people down there."
The incident occurred as demonstrators faced off with police in the tenth night of protests. The protests had remained peaceful throughout the day.
However, tensions rose at around 10:20PM, as protesters continued to advance barriers set in place by law enforcement. "Whose streets? Our streets!" they shouted.
After warnings from officers, police resorted to using flash-bangs, pepper spray, and tear gas to disperse the remaining crowd.
Speaking during their video news conference earlier in the day, Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best apologized for instances in which they said officers may have failed to deescalate tense moments, and resorted to using disproportionate force against demonstrators.
Durkan, who announced a 30-day ban on most use of tear gas Friday - only to see police deploy pepper-spray canisters and blast balls Saturday night, and again on Sunday - said:
"Use of force must be rare, it must be necessary and it must be proportional. Like everybody in our community, we know that was not the case, not only this week but in cases before.
"I know that safety was shattered for many by the images, sound and gas more fitting of a war zone, and for that, I’m sorry."
Durkan and Best then asked protesters to do more to help quell violence within the crowds, blaming "bad actors" for inciting clashes.
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