Some protestors threw bottles at Secret Service agents and police near the White House. Officers responded by firing tear gas to break up the crowds.
Even as they halted traffic on the Capital Beltway and shouted obscenities at the fleet of presidential helicopters that carried Trump back to the White House, the demonstrations scattered throughout the city remained mostly peaceful.
But there were also signs of increased tension as the protesters sought to call attention to the killing of , a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after a white officer pinned him to the ground under his knee. Some threw bottles at Secret Service agents and police near the White House. Officers respondedto break up the crowds. The D.C. National Guard joined other armored forces in Lafayette Square, near the White House, in trying to control protesters. “Don’t run! Don’t run!” some yelled as police and protesters clashed outside the park Saturday night. Showing at least five red welts on her bare left arm, Lindsay Kouyate, 21, said she was shot with something she couldn't identify. Kouyate said she was holding her"I Cant Breathe" sign near the police in front of Lafayette Square at the time. "I was just standing there with my sign. A bunch of other people were yelling and screaming,” she said."He shot me so many times. I don’t know what it was." Kouyate, who lives in Maryland, said she had been at the protests all day but wasn’t going home, even after her injury.Nour Faladi, a 22-year-old programmer from Maryland, was among those caught in a round of tear gas. She was in a crowd when a gas canister hit the ground, she said, and it was “immediately harder to breathe." She said her eyes started running. She said a volunteer in the crowd washed her eyes out, and then she headed back into the crowd. Police wearing helmets and holding shields formed a line between the protesters and the White House, a hot spot in the city throughout much of Saturday evening. At times, some protesters tried to knock over temporary barriers or approach officers, although none appeared to get near the tall fence at the White House. At least one vehicle was on fire a few blocks north of the White House, and firefighters also responded to an alley fire near the White House. A local TV station reported that stores in the city's tony Georgetown neighborhood had boarded windows. "Multiple" special agents and uniformed officers were injured when some protesters threw bricks, rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers, officials said.returned to the White House on Marine One at around 8:30 p.m.the White House grounds, some demonstrators shouted obscenities and shook their fists.rioters, looters and anarchists"My administration will stop mob violence and we’ll stop it cold," Trump said, blaming violence in several cities on"radical left-wing" groups."I will not allow angry mobs to dominate...It is essential that we protect the crown jewel of democracy: The rule of law."in cities across the nation against police brutality and racial discrimination. At least two deaths have been linked to the demonstrations. Protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with police officers dressed in riot gear in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Portland, Oregon; and elsewhere.Peaceful protests over George Floyd 'hijacked' by 'far left extremist groups' Outside the White House, officers wearing plastic body shields charged and pushed back a crowd of people who had removed metal barriers set up on Pennsylvania Avenue. A police helicopter circled overhead. The smell of marijuana also hung in the air. "Trump is the reason why cops feel they can do certain things to black people,” said Cameron Jackson, 25, a supervisor at a grocery store, as he stood in the middle of 16th Street. “He condones it. He is a racist.”Dave Pringle, 32, who works on criminal justice policy in D.C., also condemned Trump. "This man – this occupant of this building – represents the worst of humanity," Pringle said."I think he is an avatar of the worst of humanity."Secret Service, which said it"respects the right to assemble, and we ask that individuals do so peacefully for the safety of all." Secret Service agents and police carrying shields blocked off Lafayette Square north of the White House as drivers honked in support of the protesters and raised their fists in the air. Some demonstrators held up signs that read:"Stop Murdering Black People" and"White Silence is Violence." "I came here to enforce the Black Lives Matter movement and to get justice for the injustices we have been receiving for over hundreds of years," said Ariel Weems, a 16-year-old high school student from Bowie, Maryland.“I don’t agree with any of his policies," Weems said."His Twitter comments? Shooting and looting? That was absurd. ... We’re out here protesting for our lives.”through the crowds, passing out water bottles. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, others distributed masks. Most of the demonstrators wore masks but were closer than six feet from each other. Strumming a guitar, Steve Canciani, 28, sang the Christian song “Break Every Chain” with Daniel Faludi, 22, near the White House. Their music mixed with the sound of sirens and the whirring of a circling helicopter.Jake Schindler, 26, was one of several people handing out water. Schindler said his Christian faith"called him" to justice. After running by the protest earlier in the afternoon and seeing others giving out water, he came back with a case of bottles to distribute. James Bryant, a 30-year-old Washington resident, said he felt “like he needed to show up as a black man in America.” The protests, he said, were part of a “collective anger” that Americans can't ignore. Asked if he was worried about tensions between the crowd and the cordon of police, he shrugged and said, “they’re just people.” By early evening, some protesters marched to the National Museum of African American History and Culture near the Washington Monument. Along the route, someone paintedreferences to the police and to Floyd on the ground.DC Mayor Bowser responds to Trump's criticism over police after George Floyd protests Corey Gwynn, a 27-year-old speech pathologist from Virginia, told USA TODAY she had joined the protest because she was"upset about the lack of equality," especially as people had peacefully protested for so long"with no change." Asked what she thought of the protests around the country, some of which turned violent, she said she"can’t blame her brothers and sisters, but that’s not the way I’m going about it."Floyd, 46, died Monday evening, shortly after video footage showed him handcuffed, gasping for air and saying"I can't breathe," as a white officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The video, taken by a bystander, circulated online and prompted widespread protests nationwide.
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