Video released Wednesday by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police shows officers intentionally cornered nearly 200 protesters on Fourth Street on June 2 before firing tear gas from at least two directions on the trapped crowd.
Police department leaders have previously denied witness and activist assertions that the protest group was ambushed that night.
Dozens of videos released Wednesday provide the most detailed look to date at an incident that sparked widespread condemnation of CMPD and calls for far-reaching reforms within the department.
In the footage, one officer is heard saying police were about to “hammer their ass” from two locations, and he told officers with the department’s bicycle unit that the plan called for those marching to be “bottle-necked” on Fourth Street.
Then, as the protest group passed by chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot,” the officer says: “Hey, wave goodbye. They’re all about to get gassed.”
The comments preceded a clash that has since drawn intense scrutiny and prompted an ongoing, far-reaching examination of CMPD policies, including the use of chemical agents. The department said Wednesday one supervisor from the June 2 incident has been punished for making “insensitive” comments but that the disciplinary action was unrelated to the deployment of chemical agents.
Robert Dawkins, a longtime community activist who worked with CMPD to make reforms, said the videos provide more proof that Charlotte leaders have failed to make necessary changes at CMPD.
“I have no faith at all in anything that comes out of CMPD’s mouth,” Dawkins said. “The City Council will not hold CMPD accountable. Nothing is going to change. I’m not disappointed, but I am mad.”
‘Do they have an avenue of escape?’
Tense interactions between law enforcement and protesters on June 2 marked the fifth night of demonstrations in the Queen City following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
During the protest, CMPD officers deployed tear gas, pepper balls and other chemical agents. Witnesses and participants in the protest have detailed significant injuries from that night and recalled having the sense they were being ambushed.
On Wednesday morning, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said the department had reviewed at least 100 hours of video, including footage from body-worn cameras and surveillance cameras in uptown from June 2. He said at a news conference the department would release “every bit of” video available.
Later Wednesday, the department publicly released several hours of video. Some of the footage released includes short clips of officers riding on motorbikes, in cars and on bicycles during the protest response throughout center city and the periphery of uptown.
Most other portions of the selected video released by CMPD include no direct footage of the tear gas deployment, with little context as to where officers are stationed.
One clip captures — via the body-worn camera of an officer standing outside the Epicentre — protesters marching past chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “I can’t breathe.”
An officer on the radio asks for a 10-second warning, though it is not clear if that is a warning of the approaching crowd or the tear gas deployed.
About 8 seconds later, a loud bang is heard, followed by members of the protest crowd sprinting back in the direction they came.
Officers mount their bicycles, crying: “Move! Move!”
“Do they have an avenue of escape?” an officer asks.
Another officer replies: “They do.”
‘Spray her in the face’
Earlier in the evening, footage captured a heated showdown at the intersection of Fifth and McDowell Streets. Police are told to “hold a hard line” after the crowd was hit with what appears to be “flash bangs” and streams of smoke.
Just after 9 p.m., after a dispersal order had already been issued, radio chatter indicated an officer was hit in the head with a rock at Fifth and McDowell Streets. CMPD officials also say some officers were hit with water bottles. As with most protests, insults were hurled at police that night and the videos released Wednesday show rising tension as the night wore on.
CMPD was intent on ensuring protesters didn’t enter the highway, according to audio and video clips.
On the scene near Independence Boulevard, an officer can be heard expressing concern over a protester holding a laser pointer.
“If she points it at your face, if she gets close — spray her in the face with OC,” another officer says, referring to pepper spray.
“OK,” the first officer replies.
Closed-door meeting
Charlotte City Council members and other city leaders viewed portions of video during a closed-door meeting Tuesday.
Some council members questioned whether CMPD has changed its account of events, two officials who were in the meeting told the Observer on Wednesday. Those officials requested anonymity because the discussions were in a portion of the meeting closed to the public.
At least one of the videos shows an officer referring to “our plan,” they said.
At one point, before tear gas was deployed, officers at Fifth and McDowell are captured on video discussing crowd movement.
“Let’s turn them up Trade and get this plan in action,” an officer says. “Everybody else get in line to push them all the way up Trade, to Trade and College.”
Some council members believe they were told in June that two different CMPD units were operating independently of one another when they were positioned at Tryon and College Streets, on either end of Fourth Street, surrounding protesters, two officials said.
But the videos suggest there was a coordinated plan being executed at the time, they said.
At a press conference Wednesday, Jennings listed changes the department made to prevent officers from taking similar actions in the future.
But in the private session with City Council, CMPD insisted that officers did not use “kettling,” a method that would leave demonstrators trapped between lines of officers with no path to disperse, the sources told the Observer.
Jennings did not initially plan to publicly announce that a sergeant had been disciplined and suspended without pay for two weeks, those officials said.
Some council members urged him to release the information to show that the department was attempting to hold officers accountable for inappropriate conduct, they said.
Mayor Vi Lyles, through a city spokesman, did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.
“I hope everyone is aware that that’s not the kind of department we want to have for policing,” Lyles has previously told reporters. “It’s not the kind of reputation that we want to have nationally or locally.”
Previously, a N.C. State Bureau of Investigation review found protesters were not blocked by police and had possible escape routes. The SBI said one exit path was on South College Street, though the review notes protesters were hit by chemical agents while running into the area.
The SBI report also noted no officers in riot gear — those closest to where tear gas was deployed — were wearing body cameras, as officers normally do. The report said CMPD told SBI agents that the cameras that are worn on normal officer uniforms could not be worn with riot gear. All officers are now required to wear body-cameras, Jennings said — otherwise, it constitutes a policy violation.
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 8:32 PM.