A Christian minister protesting outside Coast Guard Island in Oakland, California, was hit in the face by an object deployed by federal agents, according to reports.
Footage taken by Shaylin Usiak shows the moment the man, identified as local clergyman Jorge Bautista, was hit, as well as other footage of the protesters clashing with federal agents and coast guardsmen in Oakland.
Usiak told Storyful that the protest started peacefully.
“We were walking back and forth in the crosswalk exercising our pedestrian right of way and Border Patrol agents attempted to run us over,” she said.
The San Francisco Chronicle said Bautista was hit by a flash-bang grenade, while KTVU reported he was hit by a smoke grenade.
“I came to say we’re here in peace,” Bautista told KTVU, adding that the agent who launched the device “didn’t care. There is nothing else to say, clearly he wanted to cause harm to me.”
Demonstrators gathered outside the Coast Guard base in Oakland to protest the arrival of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday.
Trump had previously announced that he would deploy federal agents to San Francisco to help the city decrease crime, but said on social media Thursday that he would back off those plans after talking with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. Credit: Shaylin Usiak via Storyful