I’m in Aurora for a planned rally seeking justice for Elijah McClain, and in solidarity with Portland. A bunch of women are here, prepared to form a “wall of moms” if needed, and I’m told some veterans are coming, too. I’ll be posting updates throughout the evening.

Aurora PD posted an advisory ahead of tonight’s protest, telling people not to bring sticks, poles, bats, to be aware that noise from bullhorns can cause injury and warning against the use of “fighting words.” You can read the advisory here: https://www.auroragov.org/blog/One.aspx?portalId=2869361&postId=16913837&portletAction=viewpost

It’s been raining lightly and steadily, but there’s a decent crowd here. At least a couple hundred. Organizer said they plan to rally here for a bit, then march. Not clear where the march is headed. Nothing has started yet, just some people gathered. No cops in sight.

First speakers tonight note that it’s been about 11 months since Elijah McClain died after Aurora PD violently arrested him.

One speaker runs through facts of McClain case. Big boos for DA Dave Young and Mayor Mike Coffman.

Speaker tells crowd: “What the past almost year (since McClain died) has shown us is that there will be no justice and no safety for our community unless we the people fight for it ourselves.”

Crowd chants: “They are fascists! They are fascists!”

Terrance Roberts tells crowd: “We are coming for everything killing us.”

Elijah McClain’s death was clearly murder, McClain family friend Candice Bailey tells the crowd. “Stevie Wonder can see that shit,” she says.

Protesters have taken Alameda Avenue, are now on the move.

Last time I was in Aurora police showed up in riot gear to a violin vigil. Today I haven’t seen a single cop anywhere, including now as protesters have shut down traffic on Alameda in both directions.

Aurora protesters have shut down 225. Many more are streaming onto the highway, chanting Elijah McClain’s name.

I’m bad with guessing crowd size, but there are a lot of people here. Many hundreds. They now have both directions of 225 shut down.

Crowd does call and repeat: “We hold this highway in unflinching solidarity with the movement for Black lives ... and all victims of police terrorism. We will continue our resistance to the racist US regime and its occupying forces as long as they exist, until the empire falls.”

Still no cops in sight. They may well be out here in plain clothes, and/or monitoring in other ways, but they haven’t been visible here all evening.

And just as I tweeted that, I spy a few squad cars to the right of the highway, in a parking lot. I can also now see a couple more cars way up ahead on the highway.

And very suddenly, chaos.

Someone came through the crowd firing something. I don’t know what, but there were a bunch of bangs, and people huddled down together.

I also saw a young woman fall off the 225 side wall. She writhed in pain and people screamed for a medic.

People are now exiting 225, and the crowd has splintered a bit.

This is what the side wall of the highway looks like. So not a small fall for the woman. I am close to her now and she appears conscious and breathing, but she is clearly hurting.

A group of people is now tending to the woman who fell off the highway wall. Nearby others are cutting down the metal fence so that the woman can be carried out of here. Aurora police just arrived to attend to her and they thanked the people for cutting down the fence.

Protesters and police are speaking about treatment for the woman. From up top on the highway, some protesters calling down that there’s at least one other injured party. “We need EMT in the middle of the highway ASAP!” I don’t know what happened up there or who might be hurt.

An officer told me of the young woman who fell: “She jumped out of the way of the vehicle” — that at least one driver was shooting something. Another cop tells me there is someone with a gunshot wound. I am working to confirm what happened. It was all very quick, out of nowhere.

Police update: https://twitter.com/aurorapd/status/1287191681532440576?s=21 https://twitter.com/aurorapd/status/1287191681532440576

Whole bunch of official vehicles (cops, fire, EMT) are here responding to the woman who fell. She remains on the ground and is being treated. Small group here, we are broken off from the hundreds of others who were on the highway. Not sure where they have all gone.

Several witnesses have told me they saw a Jeep drive through the crowd. Several others have said that the bangs we all heard (or some of them, at least) came from within the crowd, responding to the driver(s) they saw plowing through.

The young woman who fell off the highway has been taken away on a stretcher, in an ambulance. Very scary — she easily fell 20 feet, by my estimate — but I saw her breathing and talking.

From another journalist on scene. I have also heard this from witnesses, and a cop earlier told me that police were attending to a gunshot wound. https://twitter.com/stringerjourno/status/1287193706173521921?s=21 https://twitter.com/stringerjourno/status/1287193706173521921

Here’s a video that captures the moment of chaos on 225. https://twitter.com/afrofrontco/status/1287198780840988672?s=21 https://twitter.com/afrofrontco/status/1287198780840988672

If you were on 225 and you witnessed any part of what happened, my DMs are open.

Here’s Aurora PD’s account of what happened. This is consistent with what I’ve heard from eyewitnesses.