In Denver:

A second day of demonstrations downtown.

For the second night in a row, Denver police fired clouds of eye-burning tear gas and exploded flash grenades to disperse large, outraged crowds of demonstrators who had marched for hours Friday in protest of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

The demonstrations started peacefully at midday, with a rally at the Capitol that included families with children and marches into parts of downtown throughout the afternoon, culminating in a large gathering at the City and County Building.

Denver school board member Tay Anderson implored the demonstrators to keep the peace and not let those in their midst provoke police. “Your actions will not get us any sort of tear gas, any sort of rubber bullets,” he told marchers. “You are not doing that.”

As nightfall approached, Anderson urged the demonstrators to go home. But about 8 p.m., police and protesters began to clash, with officers firing gas, detonating flash grenades and shooting nonlethal pepper rounds at crowds around Lincoln Street and Colfax Avenue near the state Capitol, a chaotic scene that sent demonstrators running.

Nearly an hour later, after protesters had massed on the lawn of the Capitol, police and SWAT officers flooded the area with clouds of tear gas, again sending people running. Every few minutes, loud bangs could be heard around the statehouse, each explosion spurring more people to sprint away.

With the air reeking of tear gas, people could be seen coughing and vomiting.

One 15-year-old showed a Denver Post reporter what appeared to be a sponge bullet and a pepper ball, saying he’d just been struck in the leg. He said his mother didn’t know he was at the protest.

By 10 p.m., crowds had dispersed down Lincoln and Broadway, at one point blocking traffic on 13th Street.

But the scene had calmed considerably.

The march had kicked off peacefully at the Capitol at noon after a more tense scene — featuring heavy use of chemical deterrents by police and culminating in 13 arrests — had wrapped up in the same area about 2 a.m.

Demonstrators marched around the Capitol and to the 16th Street Mall and back multiple times. At one point, the Denver Police Department sent its SWAT unit to remove protesters blocking traffic on Broadway, leading to a short, but tense, standoff.

Protesters could be seen Friday evening spraypainting a statue in front of the Capitol while others cheered them on.

Asa Willett told The Denver Post that someone had used pepper spray against demonstrators about 3 p.m., and two hours later their eyes still burned.

“I’m here today because I was 15 when Ferguson happened and I don’t know how the rest of the world moved on,” Willett said.

Brittany Johnson of Denver, who marched Friday afternoon, said she did so for her children and her brother, a black man who she said was killed years ago by police in Colorado Springs.

“I have two 1-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and they’re African-American. I can’t imagine being the mother of these black men and women and children who continue to die at the hand of the police,” she said.

“We shouldn’t have racist structures, but the police system continues to be a racist structure. … It’s been happening too long. Something’s got to happen.”

Anderson played emcee for most of the afternoon, leading the march and chants.

At 12:08 p.m., the crowd began marching, and participants shouted “black lives matter!” among other chants.

Around 12:50 p.m., having marched all the way down to Wazee Street, the crowd pivoted and headed back toward the Capitol. For the walk back, Anderson encouraged white allies to fall back in the crowd so black people could march at the front.

Participants shouted, “Say his name: George Floyd,” among other chants, as they walked.