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\n A protester pinned to the ground by at least two federal agents was sprayed directly in the face by another agent with a can of chemical irritant<\/a> inches away from the man\u2019s head.\n <\/p>\n \n A photo taken by The Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a> shows an opaque stream of orange chemical irritant blasting into the protester\u2019s face before it cascades into a puddle on cold, wet concrete.\n <\/p>\n \n When photographer Rich Tsong-Taatarii arrived at the Minneapolis protest Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said at least two teens had been taken away by federal agents, the Star Tribune reported.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople were really mad, and the whole scene started moving from near 28th to 29th with the Border Patrol trying to get out of there, and people were in their face yelling at them,\u201d Tsong-Taatarii said<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The tension escalated when a Border Patrol agent shoved a woman on a bicycle to the ground, according to the Star Tribune.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is when people got really riled up,\u201d Tsong-Taatarii said. He said agents started deploying tear gas and other chemical irritants.\n <\/p>\n \n Tsong-Taatrii did not see the man who was pinned to the ground put his hands on agents.\n <\/p>\n \n The Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol agents were \u201crepeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAt each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions,\u201d DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAt one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowd tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2257473117.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
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