Thread: Police blinded eight people in a 24-hour period with “less-lethal” munitions. https://wapo.st/protests-police-blinding

@jonswaine @mmkelly22 @atthar_mirza and I reconstructed three of those incidents. Our video analysis undermine some official accounts.

This is John Sanders, a 24-year-old protester from Ohio. He lost his left eye while walking away from the crowd of protesters. Pic by @mmkelly22

Protesters that day had smashed windows at the Cleveland Justice Center, which houses the police department and the courts.

Sanders had paused along W. 3rd Street to take photos of the graffiti on the building and smoke in the air when he was struck in the left eye with a bean bag round fired from the direction of the Justice Center offices.

Sheriff’s department has said that its deputies fired “less-lethal” rounds “to prevent breaches of the Justice Center.” The department’s rules permit this to “control a combative subject.”

Sanders said doctors found 50-100 lead pellets in his eye. A third of his eyelid was found in his sinus. He told us that every time he looks into a mirror, he is taken back to this moment.