my older brother went to a protest in Denver last night. as the police were leaving, one of them shot him with a pepper pellet that smashed the back of his phone and exploded in his face. they were ~30 feet from each other and it looks like the officer aimed directly at his face pic.twitter.com/m9vxaSQbwI
— Rachelle D’nae (@heyydnae) May 31, 2020
Video shows a cop opening fire at the person recording the footage. Slate staff writer Rachelle Hampton, who posted it online, said it showed a Denver police officer Saturday night, and that her big brother was the man who was shot. She said that as officers were leaving, one of them opened fire on her sibling with a pepper pellet. It smashed the back of his phone, and exploded in his face, she said.
Her brother and the officer were about 30 feet from one another, “and it looks like the officer aimed directly at his face,” she wrote.
“I’m not posting this for sympathy, though I appreciate it. I’m posting it bc my brother clearly posed no threat and it didn’t matter,” she wrote. “It never matters.”
Denver police did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment on this.
“When my brother told me he was going I prepared for the worst,” she wrote. “I made sure he had my number memorized so I could bail him out if I needed to and I sat up until he made it home, trying not to cry as he told me he had been tear gassed.”
She dismissed any idea that her brother was out after the 8pm curfew in Denver. The incident happened before that, “though that shouldn’t fucking matter.” Hampton said her brother’s face was still burning when he woke up Sunday morning.
Tense, sometimes violent protests occurred nationwide in the wake of the death of Minnesota man George Floyd. Then-police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on his neck even minutes after he became unresponsive. The law enforcement official was fired, and charged with a count each of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
[Screengrab via Rachelle Hampton]
