Huntsville, Madison law enforcement respond to Wednesday protest

Huntsville, Madison law enforcement respond to Wednesday protest

Najahe sherman.

And i'm dan shaffer.

Waay 31's sydney martin joins us live now in huntsville - after law enforcement held a briefing on their response to last night's protest, waay 31's sydney martin joins us live with what huntsville police had to say about their response last night.

Today, chief mark mcmurray from huntsville police alongside sheriff kevin turner and madison police chief dave jernigan - walked us through what happened last night- as the peaceful protest ended- and some people refused to leave this downtown area.

Take a listenn... "all of those who were asked to leave who were there for the right purpose, they all left.

The ones who stayed began daunting all their protective equipment.

They put on their eye protection.

They put on their gas masks.

They broke out their gas masks.

They put on their first aid kit, their water, their milk their preparations for combat.

We do not want to go hand to hand combat with any citizen.

And so we stood the line we continued with the noise.

We continued with the warnings, they refused.

They continued to organize.

We could see the organizers going person to person handing out things, ramping up the emotions even more.

They refused to leave we gave final warnings.

90 minutes into this warning, begging and pleading, please go home we need to orderly retreat.

This is not an organized event, sheriff and i have declared this an unlawful event and we had the authority to do that.

They refused.

So what you saw was a typical way of dispersing with the least amount of force.

They wanted to fight.

We don't want to fight we just want them to go home..

You ask why gas?

Gas is a long distance irritant dispersed.

It's the easiest way to make you uncomfortable there.

Without harming you.

You smelled it.

You were uncomfortable with it.

You were really uncomfortable if you were down on the street."

24 arrests last night 20 of them went for disorderly conduct, refusing to leave.

They were in the park refusing to go.

We had moved them around the town several times.

Finally, got tired of chasing them.

They were throwing things at us.

Throwing ice bottles at us.

Throwing rocks at us, picking up things as i go.

I'm sorry but they're about to break out windows, which they did break out a bunch of store business windows.

I have several cars that were damaged.

I have 2 officers that were injured.

One of them with light trauma to the head and one of them that says he's okay.

He had a helmet on .

He was beat down on the head several times with some objects and he is okay and they're both back at work today, but like i said light injuries this time that we didn't have on monday.

When you see an anarchist symbol on something their number 1 motive is to disrupt any type of government.

So anarchist will use any method available to overthrow any government of any political party.

This was not the naacp.

Let me be clear.

Had nothing to do with it.

These are the groups that are chasing around all different groups all over the country right now and causing disruptions and damage."

Sydney... you were there last night from the beginning?

What is your perspective on what happened and on the officers response?

There were pics on social media - someone claiming they were injured by a rubber bullet.

Did police fire any weapons other than gas and smoke at protesters last night?