A journalist reporting on the ongoing protests at North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Reservation managed to film the moment she was shot with a rubber bullet by riot police.
Erin Schrode was interviewing a protester when a law enforcement officer shot her. Video footage of the incident shows her doubling over in severe pain, as onlookers rush to her aid:
I was shot by militarized police WHILE interviewing a man on camera at #StandingRock…and here’s the footage. #NoDAPL https://t.co/FfWiSCbiKf pic.twitter.com/4DRwNPkfZ9
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) November 3, 2016
In a follow-up Facebook post, Schrode confimed she sustained no lasting physical injuries from the “point blank” shooting, but said “I am hurting, I am incensed, I am weeping, I am scared.”
Schrode still praised the efforts of protesters on-site, who’ve been campaigning to halt the development of a massive Dakota Access Pipeline they claim could fundamentally disturb local water supplies and sacred sites.
“Peaceful, prayerful, unarmed, nonviolent people on one side of a river; militarized police with armed vehicles and assault weapons occupying treaty land on the other, where sacred burial grounds have already been destroyed.What is happening here in North Dakota is like nothing I have ever seen in my life, anywhere in the world.”
She also confirmed she’ll stay on-site, saying “I am here – and will remain here – to cover and amplify truth and bravery on the ground.”
Morton County Sheriff’s Department said the use of rubber bullets came after a protester allegedly hurled a bottle at police, and they also confirmed the use of tear gas and pepper spray to deter protesters from getting too close.
FWIW, those claims of violence on behalf of the protesters have been rubbished by people on the ground.
The protest against the oil pipeline’s development is expected to continue, despite an obviously aggressive police force standing on-site.
Thank you for your prayers. I will heal from this rubber bullet shot…though many/earth will not. Intense pain, trauma, horror. #StandingRock
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) November 4, 2016
