Yahoo Finance Journalist hit in face with non-lethal round while covering protests over police killing of Daunte Wright
A journalist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune was reportedly shot with a non-lethal round and was seriously injured while covering the Daunte Wright protests in Minneapolis.
According to freelance journalist Jared Goyette, he is working with the ACLU to file an emergency restraining order against the Minneapolis Police Department to force them to stop firing non-lethal rounds at journalists covering the protests.
He said the journalist - a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune - is doing "ok," but said he was worried more reporters would be injured while trying to do their jobs.
"We have a constitutionally protected right to cover events of public interest. That is also our job. We need to be able to see what's happening and document the actions of all parties," he said in a Twitter post.
Throughout the 2020 George Floyd protests, numerous instances of police shooting non-lethal rounds, throwing explosive devices at journalists, or beating and detaining journalists occurred.
A video from protests in Kentucky showed police officers aiming their weapons at journalists, and firing pepper balls at them, which prompted an apology from the mayor of Louisville.
In another instance, Minneapolis police threw an explosive device near an MSNBC crew who were covering the protests in the wake of Mr Floyd's killing.
Also in Minneapolis in 2020, journalist Linda Tirado was blinded after an officer shot her in the eye with a non-lethal round.
Non-lethal rounds are not intended to be aimed at people's heads.
Protests broke out after Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot Mr Wright, killing him. She claims she intended to use a Taser on the man, but accidentally drew her side arm and killed him.
In police body camera footage, Ms Potter can be heard saying "Taser" three times before pulling her gun and firing a single shot at Mr Wright, killing him.
"Holy s***, I just shot him," she says in the video.
She has since resigned, as has Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon. She was arrested Wednesday on charges of second degree murder.
The protests are fueled not just by another policing killing of a young Black man, but by the ongoing murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derrick Chauvin, who is accused of killing Mr Floyd last march by kneeling on his neck for nearly ten minutes while detaining him.
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