Police release post-rally footage

Demonstrations at Trump event turned chaotic

Phoenix police on Thursday shared with media outlets a 13-minute video compilation of events that happened the night of President Donald Trump’s visit to Phoenix.

Sgt. Jonathan Howard said the video was compiled as part of the department’s ongoing investigation into the events of Aug. 22, which started as a peaceful protest and ended in a night of tear gas and chaos.

The video footage showed clips shared on social media and pulled from security cameras in the area. Howard said body-camera video from officers, which was not part of the compilation,

also will be reviewed as part of the investigation, which he said is in its early stages.

Howard said the video shows how calm and direct the line of Phoenix police officers stood outside after the Trump event concluded and attendees were directed away from protesters, who had been demonstrating outside.

However, a group of protesters can be seen in the video with an “antifa” sign, referencing the anti-fascist groups who strongly oppose Trump. As they move closer to barricade fencing, it appears they possibly dislodge it, Howard said.

At that point, the video footage shows, Phoenix police fire the first product, pepper balls, which were aimed toward the ground in front of the antifa demonstrators, Howard said.

He said officers had seen the people behind the sign put on masks and exchange items that appeared to be water bottles. Later in the video, people could be seen throwing water bottles at the line of police officers.

Howard added that in the past, this group was known by police to use the poles of their signs to dislodge police fencing.

“Officers are calmly standing out here monitoring the events, not wearing any gas masks,” he said. “We have no reason (to wear the masks); we have not dispersed any agents into the air.”

Howard said the effect wasn’t intended for the surrounding people, who can be seen in the video, because they weren’t doing anything wrong.

The antifa crowd backed away from the fence but then intermingled within the rest of the people, Howard said. Moments later in the video compilation, an unidentifiable canister of smoke is thrown at police from the protesters’ side.

At this point, officers can be seen putting on their gas masks because they did not know what the substance was. As police are doing that, another canister of blue smoke is shot at the officers, the video shows.

Trump and rally attendees were leaving the convention center as this was unfolding.

In the video, some demonstrators can be heard urging their fellow protesters to remain peaceful.

Howard said a variety of police response methods were used.

“Police presence, announcements, warnings, personal interactions, some individual arrests and ultimately smoke, gas and impact projectiles were used,” he said. “The decision to use these tools is not taken lightly.”

The first substance shot was pepper balls. The second substance was smoke, which is used to encourage people to leave the area but does not cause the eyes to tear or affect a person’s breathing, Howard said.

However, as the night progressed, tear gas was employed by police.

Foam projectiles were used against specific individuals engaged in violent activity, such as those throwing weapons and canisters back at police, Howard said. Phoenix police also used noisemakers that are not targeted at people but are fired into the air to startle the crowd.

“Lessons learned from communities across the country and the world have proven that if left unchecked, the disorder in these situations increases rapidly,” he said. “Mass violence, mass damage, mass injury and even death has occurred in other communities.”

Many people have complained that Phoenix police did not make an announcement before they released the smoke and tear gas. Howard responded that throughout the night, police officers were making individual announcements to people.

“We were really trying to target those people that were actively engaging in acts,” Howard said. “It’s not our goal to tell everybody, ‘You have to go home’; it’s our goal to tell those that are engaged in criminal acts, ‘You have to go home.’ ”

In the video, announcements can be more clearly heard coming from a police helicopter.

After the smoke was dispersed into the area, most of the people within 30 to 40 feet in front of the Herberger Theater Center left the cloud of smoke and started moving north along Second Street. Police continued moving the crowd toward Van Buren Street in an effort to disperse it.

Howard said police are looking at footage to determine whether they can do a better job of making announcements to crowds in the future.

He said the department won’t dispute claims that protesters didn’t hear announcements because some areas were warned more often than others, but he said announcements were made to the crowds.

At Wednesday’s Phoenix City Council meeting, about 200 people vented frustration over the Phoenix Police Department’s actions.

Howard said the release of the footage was not in response to critics who spoke at the meeting.

He said the investigation began Aug. 23, and it took until Thursday to share information the department was confident in releasing.

The proposal that was before the council, for an independent review of the Phoenix Police Department’s crowd-control tactics that night, was withdrawn by the city manager.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said he watched the same video given to media outlets earlier Thursday and saw clear evidence that people in the crowd threw gas and other dangerous objects at officers prior to being dispersed.

“The video very clearly shows a smoking gas canister landing behind officers — who are not wearing protective masks because police had not yet deployed gas — near the entrance of the Convention Center,” Stanton said in a statement. “This unknown gas created a dangerous situation for our officers and the public.”

Stanton said what happened after the peaceful protest turned violent was unfortunate. However, he said, the suggestion that the department’s response was “unprovoked is irresponsible and inaccurate.”

Stanton said he still supports an independent review of police actions during the rally.

“I hope cooler heads can prevail and Phoenix can find a way to conduct an independent review that looks closer at all the decisions made that night and everyone they impacted,” Stanton wrote.