Body camera video shows Cleveland police officer pepper sprayed peaceful protester in the face

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Newly released body camera video shows a Cleveland police officer fire pepper spray in a peaceful protester’s face during the May 30 demonstration outside downtown’s Justice Center that devolved into riots.

The video, captured by a Cuyahoga County sheriff’s deputy, was included in a batch of body camera videos that the county released last week, nearly two months after cleveland.com and other media outlets requested the videos. It depicts a previously un-publicized use of force by Cleveland’s police department, which is already facing two excessive force lawsuits over actions its officers took that day in response to the demonstration.

Department spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia responded to a list of questions Wednesday by saying that the incident was “under investigation.” Pressed further, Ciaccia said that she sent the video to the department’s internal affairs unit after cleveland.com reached out Wednesday with a request for comment.

The encounter came about 4:48 p.m, more than an hour after police and sheriff’s deputies first began firing pepper balls, flash grenades and canisters of tear gas into the crowd that had thrown water bottles and other items at officers at the doors of the Justice Center.

The video shows the woman, whose identity cleveland.com has yet to learn, standing with a small group of people on the sidewalk of Lakeside Avenue near a line of city cops and sheriff’s deputies who were wielding riot shields and helmets. The woman was holding a sign that read, “give us what belongs to us in peace, and if you don’t give it to us in peace, we will take it by force,” a quote by the early 20th century anarchist political revolutionary Emma Goldman.

The woman commented on the disparity between the weapons police were using on them, and the items thrown at police. She noted the officers had riot shields and helmets, and the protesters did not and asked the officers what if police had killed one of their loved ones. She also criticized the officer for not answering her questions.

“Are you going to tear gas me?” she asked. “For standing here with my sign and trying to have a conversation with you?”

The woman talked about a minute before a man carrying a parking sign came up from behind her. The deputy whose body camera video recorded the interaction turned to the protesters standing in front of him and told them to “tell your dude down there he might want to put that sign down.”

The Cleveland officer unleashed a stream of pepper spray that struck the woman’s face, the video showed.

Nearby Protesters rushed to the woman’s side and cursed at the officers.

“You don’t even know her,” the deputy whose body camera recorded the incident said.

The group helped the woman flush the chemicals out of her eyes and off her face.

“She threw a,” the deputy began before he corrected himself, “he threw a parking sign. You might want to tell your folks that.”

The deputy continued, noting that the man who threw the sign was “lucky.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell her to tell him to go get away with that sign,” he said. “Just saying. Right?”

The video continues and shows an escalation between protesters and police. Protesters began throwing bottles and rocks at the officers, and police launched explosive grenades and tear gas canisters into the crowd in response. People in the crowd started throwing the tear gas canisters back at the officers, who shot pepper spray balls at protesters’ feet to keep them from grabbing the canisters.

The commotion died down after a few minutes, and the woman, whose face had turned red and soaked with water, began speaking to the police again.

“What did I do?” she pleaded, according to another sheriff’s deputy’s body camera video released last week. “I stood here. You watched it. I stood there, talking to you. And look at my face. I haven’t moved, and you f-----g burned my face.”

None of the officers or sheriff’s deputies answered her question or explained as to why he sprayed her in the face.

Cleveland police have not released any information or records about this incident. The department previously denied a records request from cleveland.com for body camera video from each officer who reported using any level of force that day, saying the request was “overly broad.”

Ciaccia and the city did not provide cleveland.com any additional infromation about the video, including the identity of the officer who deployed the pepper spray; if the officer has been placed on any restrictive duty pending any review; if the case has been referred to city or county prosecutors; and what the department would say to the woman to explain why she got pepper sprayed.

Cleveland.com also asked the sheriff’s department for the identity of the deputy whose camera recorded the interaction and if the department stood behind his statements to the protesters. Spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said the department would not have an answer on Wednesday.

Jeff Follmer, president of the union that represents rank-and-file police officers, said he did not know the identity of the officer in the video but defended his actions.

“He’s clearly going after the guy with the sign,” Follmer said. “The peaceful protesters that are in front is a clear tactic that these groups do to provide cover for the agitators.”

Follmer then clarified that he did not know for sure that the woman sprayed in the face was engaging in that tactic, but said it is a common move among protest groups.

He also said he thought it was OK for police to inadvertently pepper spray peaceful protesters in the face so long as they were aiming for someone else.

“It’s OK if the intent is going for the aggressor, which is the sign person,” Follmer said. “I do believe his actions were OK based on him going after the person with the sign first.”

The video is the latest depiction of officers deploying pepper spray, tear gas and other munitions and weapons on demonstrators who appeared to be peacefully protesting.

Two such protesters have filed excessive force lawsuits against Cleveland police officer John Kazimer in separate incidents.

Kazimer was captured on video beating protester Ryan O’Connor in the back of the legs with a baton as O’Connor tried to help separate the crowd from police officers. A photographer snapped still photographs of Kazimer spraying Jaleesa Bennett in the face with pepper spray as she held up a poster board with “Black Lives Matter” written on it.

Attorneys Ian Friedman and David Malik filed both lawsuits. Cleveland police are investigating those incidents as well.

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office are investigating an incident where a deputy shot a 24-year-old protester in the face with a bean bag round that exploded and cost the man his left eye.

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