By Mark Darrough - June 10, 2020
WILMINGTON — Questions have swirled following a protest nearly two weeks ago that began peacefully, turned angry and disobedient in nature, and later caused the streets of downtown Wilmington to fill with clouds of tear gas, flash-bang explosions, rubber bullets, and lines of riot control officers blocking off city streets.
One question is at the forefront of many people’s minds: Why did riot officers with the New Hanover and Brunswick County sheriff’s offices continue its assault, minutes after protestors had reached a compromise with Wilmington Police Department Interim Chief Donny Williams, agreeing to vacate the street and return to the sidewalk in return for the departure of his men? To many protestors, this further showed an unnecessary use of force by deputies that night and a lack of coordination between deputies and WPD officers.
RELATED: In Pictures and Video: Sunday’s initially peaceful protest turns to chaos
City and county leaders have stood by the use of force, which many protestors observed came primarily from deputies during the chaotic night that ensued. A WPD spokesperson said police officers used only one tear gas canister in response to a person who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail later in the evening. But that canister landed in a gutter and did not impact the crowd, according to a WPD spokesperson.
Asked to provide numbers on how many projectiles and canisters deputies fired, a New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office (NHCSO) spokesperson said the office was “not going to release information that may affect our tactical advantage.”
Claims of a violent protest
Mayor Bill Saffo speaks to reporters behind a line of riot control deputies on Princess Street as District Attorney Ben David looks on, Sunday, May 31. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
Speaking to reporters behind a phalanx of sheriff’s officers on Princess Street, an hour-and-a-half after deputies first fired tear gas at the crowd beside City Hall, Mayor Bill Saffo and District Attorney Ben David said the tear gas was initially ordered in response to a violent demonstration, at odds with what many protestors claim. Saffo said he saw from a nearby window protesters throwing objects at police officers, taunting them, and “attacking cars.” He said certain protestors were behind a well-orchestrated attempt to incite a riot.
“There’s nothing about a peaceful protest here, this was to incite a riot … These people came down here to create a riot today. I saw it first hand. They got in the middle of the street and they wanted to create that riot, and that’s what they did. But we’re not going to tolerate it,” Saffo said.
What is certain is both men’s claims that Sheriff’s deputies had driven by City Hall on numerous occasions, urging protestors to get off Third Street and return to the sidewalk. An attempt was first observed at 6:40 p.m., roughly 80 minutes before the crowd was forcefully dispersed. There were also loud chants of profanity targeted at the police on multiple occasions, gaining momentum and intensity in the hour before deputies arrived.
But as for Saffo’s other claims, multiple journalists and others taking videos were on Third Street and no reports have been found of protestors throwing objects at officers or attacking cars before the deputies used tear gas. Port City Daily first witnessed an object thrown at officers — a smoking tear gas canister — two minutes after deputies first fired those canisters.
David said the dispersal order also came in response to certain individuals in the crowd openly displaying firearms. One man, 29-year-old Edward Joynt, was arrested by NHCSO deputies early Sunday night, but at the time was only charged with a failure to disperse on command and inciting a riot, and was later released. He was arrested again the following Tuesday, June 2, for carrying a 9mm pistol with an extended magazine at the protest.
According to Lily Nicole, who has become a leading voice of since-peaceful protests this past week, Joynt was in fact carrying a firearm, but she said it was inside his pants and not visible. He is being represented by a criminal defense attorney named Adrian Iapalucci, she said, who had offered pro bono work for the protestors.
During the protest, Saffo said that “we had asked them politely not to carry the weapons” because they violated state laws in doing so.
But at a press conference two days later at the county courthouse, David said that although law enforcement had developed information that weapons were being openly displayed in the crowd, officers “never got the opportunity to get to those individuals, and in fact none were arrested, because of what you saw as the officers tried to approach.”
He declined to give any specifics on how that information was developed because it would give away surveillance tactics.
Timeline of escalation
WARNING: The video contains profane language and scenes some viewers may find intense. (Port City Daily video/Mark Darrough)
Port City Daily reviewed photographs, videos, and interviews with protestors to compile the following timeline of events leading up to the deputies’ use of force, showing a protest that began peacefully and became increasingly loud and undisciplined — although not physically violent, according to multiple accounts and observations — before riot control officers appeared and dispensed tear gas.
6:05 p.m. A crowd of around 80 protestors is gathered on the steps of City Hall; interpretive dancing and poetry is performed; gospel music plays from speakers.
6:37 p.m. Led by a few protestors, the crowd leaves the sidewalk and fills the street, impeding traffic. Two minutes later a Sheriff’s car passes, warning people to stay out of the roadway. “You guys are doing great but get out of the road,” a deputy says from the vehicle’s PA system. The crowd continues to spill out into the roadway, chanting, “No justice, no peace.”
7:06 p.m. Chanting becomes laced with profanity directed at law enforcement. Some protestors yell at passing Sheriff’s vehicle as a deputy again warns them to get off the road.
7:13 p.m. A man stops beside the protesting crowd, lifting left arm to reveal a tattoo of the Confederate flag while protestors prevent others from getting into a physical confrontation. He then yells “White pride” and drives away. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
7:12 p.m. A large group of protestors, now in the hundreds, again spills out onto the street, impeding traffic. Soon a white man driving an older-model Chevy Tahoe, pulling a boat on a trailer, stops while driving by the group and instigates a verbal altercation with several protestors. They are held back by two men to prevent a physical confrontation before the man raises his left arm to reveal a tattoo of a Confederate flag, before driving off, yelling “White pride.”
7:50 p.m. Crowd begins marching up Third Street, gathering at the intersection of Third and Chestnut Street. Multiple protestors ask, “Where are we going?”
7:53 p.m. The crowd marches up Third Street. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
8:00 p.m. Deputies park vehicles on both ends of Third Street, one at the Chestnut intersection and two at the Market Street intersection. On a loudspeaker, a deputy announces, “This has been declared an unlawful assembly,” warning the crowd it has five minutes to disperse. He warns them if they do not leave, they will be subject to arrest, riot control agents, ‘lesser lethal’ munitions (ie. rubber bullets, tear gas), or physical removal. The crowd moves south to the intersection of Third and Princess.
8:03 p.m. Riot control officers exit a bus parked at the courthouse complex. A phalanx forms between Princess and Market — deputies lined shoulder to shoulder with shields, rubber bullet guns, and tear gas grenade launchers. Protestors are seen yelling at the officers, showing them the middle finger, and generally refusing to leave while the loudspeaker warning is repeated.
8:04 p.m. The first round of tear gas and flash-bang grenades is fired by deputies, dispersing a majority of the crowd. Some pour water on smoking canisters; minutes later, a protestor is seen throwing a canister back at the line of deputies — the first object seen by Port City Daily thrown at officers. A helicopter and at least two drones circle above.
8:06 p.m. Protesters face off with a line of riot control deputies. A protestor throws a smoking tear gas grenade back toward deputies. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
8:06 p.m. Deputies fire a second round of tear gas at remaining protestors. The phalanx begins to advance slowly north on Third Street.
8:13 p.m. WPD Interim Chief Williams walks alone down Third Street toward the deputies and stops to talk with a protestor next to City Hall.
8:20 p.m. A leader of the WPD riot control line at the Third and Chestnut intersection, opposite of the slowly advancing Sheriff’s line, meets with a protestor. The main group of protestors are now back near the Third and Chestnut intersection.
8:28 p.m. Lily Nicole, who has since become a leading voice of the protest movement, talks with Chief Williams, telling him the deputies unnecessarily tear-gassed the crowd. She asks for the deputies and police to disperse and, in return, promises to help get all protestors off the street and back onto the sidewalk. Chief Williams tells her to “hang tight.”
Port City Daily asks Chief Williams: Why was there use of force tonight? “I was not here when all that started,” he replies.
8:28 p.m. Lily Nicole, center, attempts to reach a compromise with WPD Interim Chief Donny Williams. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
8:32 p.m. Chief Williams promises to meet with Nicole and hear her concerns. (She later says that they met the following day.) Nicole asks Williams for a compromise as the Sheriff’s loudspeaker again warns the crowd to disperse. “You have five minutes to disperse.” Nicole tells Williams she will clear the protestors off the street and remain on the sidewalk, and asks Williams to disperse his men.
8:35 p.m. The smaller WPD riot line, made up of nine officers, marches away from the intersection, west toward downtown on Chestnut St. Protestors applaud; none are on the street at this time.
WPD officers clad in riot gear walk west down Chestnut Street. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
8:38 p.m. Deputies begin advancing again before firing a third round of tear gas at protestors on the sidewalk, into the empty intersection, at the Thalian Hall parking lot, down Third and Chestnut Street, and at protestors clustered at Story Park near the public library. Some protestors throw objects, including canisters, back at deputies. A deputy’s vehicle parked on the side of Third Street is hit with a canister and becomes engulfed in tear gas; a deputy enters the car and drives away.
At this point, protestors disperse throughout the streets of downtown. The streets are largely clear by 10 p.m., when an emergency curfew goes into effect.
8:38 p.m. During the third round of tear gas grenades, a canister hits nearby a Sheriff’s vehicle as a deputy prepares to drive away. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
Editor’s Note: If you have footage or photos of protestors throwing objects at law enforcement officers before the initial round of tear gas was fired at 8:04 p.m., please send to info@portcitydaily.com.
Leading voices in local movement dispute city leaders’ claims
Nicole and another protestor, Joshua Zieseniss, sat down with Port City Daily to review photographs and the overall timeline of events that led to the first three rounds of tear gas fired at protestors. Both have become leading voices in the protests that have occurred each night after May 31.
Although they acknowledged the overall attitude of protestors had become more defiant and angry in nature, they said it was also nonviolent: no objects were thrown at police, nor any cars attacked, before deputies began firing tear gas grenades, according to the two.
At the June 2 press conference, Saffo elaborated on his claim that objects were thrown at officers.
“I saw things being hurled at those police cars and Sheriff’s cars, and those sheriff’s cars and police cars started to move out of the way, at which point, Sheriff’s took control of the matter and dispersed the crowd,” Saffo said.
Later in the night, WPD officers were seen kneeling in the streets at least twice in a display of solidarity with the protestors. At one point in the evening, when the then-chaotic protest had shifted to Front Street in the heart of downtown Wilmington, WPD officers knelt with protestors. In a video submitted to Port City Daily, protestors are seen applauding before rubber bullets are fired from a nearby location; WPD denied firing any such bullets that night.
To Zieseniss, this not only spoke of the unnecessary force from the Sheriff’s deputies, but also a gap in communication between deputies and police officers.
Joshua Zieseniss, left, and Lily Nicole at an office on Third Street, Friday, June 5. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
Speaking to reporters at the courthouse press conference, David said the WPD and NHCSO worked “hand and glove to make sure order was maintained while they were dispersing the crowd.” He called it a highly coordinated response.
But Zieseniss said he spoke with at least two WPD officers who attended later protests, and each told him that “they were upset with the lack of communication and the way the Sheriff handled it while the WPD was trying to de-escalate.”
“And something I’ve been asking city leaders: they had two of those drones out above the entire time; show us the footage, because [protestors throwing objects] was just not happening,” Zieseniss said.
Although David acknowledged there were no charges or arson, looting, or “violent crime on the magnitude that we’ve seen in so many other communities,” he said he did not agree with a narrative shared widely on social media that the NHCSO acted aggressively while WPD attempted to de-escalate.
“There is nothing I’ve seen in the last 48 hours that gives me any concern that any agency was acting in an unprofessional manner,” David said.
He said he was confident that deputies acted in accordance with their federal riot control training, and reiterated that the use of force was necessary.
“We are not going to tolerate violence, and we are not going to apologize for stamping out violent activity when we see it. And we’re going to nip it in the bud when it occurs … We would’ve loved to have done it that night without deploying tear gas. We were not given that opportunity by the crowd. And we took the actions we took necessary to protect people and property, and I believe that mission was accomplished,” David said.
Secretary Hooks directs agencies to review use of force policies
On Monday, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety Erik Hooks sent a memo to all law enforcement agencies throughout the state, directing a “use of force and policy review” in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis more than two weeks ago.
“[I] believe this should be a time of reflection and evaluation/internal review for all law enforcement agencies, large and small,” he wrote.
He directed agencies to conduct reviews on use of force and de-escalation techniques, arrest procedures, crisis intervention, and internal investigation processes.
On Tuesday Port City Daily sent an email to the NHCSO asking for Sheriff Ed McMahon to address protestors’ complaints that his deputies used excessive force and did not adequately coordinate its response with the WPD on May 31. The email also asked if McMahon will begin a review of use of force and de-escalation procedures. (This article will be updated with a response.)
[Read the story as published here.]