Last night, I was walking to my car on High Street in Downtown Columbus. A SWAT officer chased me on his bike for about a block while I was sprinting away. I had my hands up and a camera in hand. He told me it was “too fucking late” to leave. He maced me three separate times.

The girl next to me was injured- she was in the wrong spot at the wrong time while windows were exploding. She had blood dripping down her face and legs, and was trying to pull glass shards out of her knees. He maced her, too.

A political scientist was handing water bottles thru the window of his apartment near the Columbus Commons. I asked if he had ever seen anything like this. “No- not in this country, at least,” he remarked as the helicopter above us dropped things. “Huh. Smoke grenades,” he said.

As journalists, we have the responsibility to expose violence and corruption within our systems. We have the responsibility to stand steadfast when threatened. We have the responsibility to minimize harm in our communities. We can’t let cops chase us away.

Curfew in Columbus begins at 10 tonight. Police and protestors have been exchanging blows since this morning, and tensions are currently escalating at the statehouse, where police are forming blockades across South High Street.

SWAT leadership told police to “reclaim the intersection” at Broad and High- multiple rounds of tear gas and these wooden bullets. Demonstrators have drawn back three blocks. These are the bullets they’re firing.

These wooden bullets are large and do serious damage. First image is one I made today, the second is from an anonymous demonstrator who was fired upon last night.