WARNING: Videos contain graphic material, viewer discretion advised
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — San Jose police released body camera footage Friday from three separate incidents during large protests held in late May following the death of George Floyd.
The three videos, along with information from police can be found below.
Incident #1
The first video was from a protest held on Sunday, May 31 and the incident caught on camera occurred around 9:30 p.m.
Officers were in the downtown area when they received a call of possible looting and an attempted burglary at the Bank of America at South Fourth and San Fernando streets.
Police tried to detain multiple suspects near the bank who officers believed were possibly armed with weapons or tools used to remove plywood from the front of the bank.
One of the suspects fled the scene on foot, running northbound on Fourth Street.
SJPD officers chased the suspect on their motorcycles. Officers say a foam baton round was fired at and struck the suspect in his lower body.
The suspect continued and ran into the lanes of traffic when an officer on a motorcycle tried to brake, but struck the suspect.
The suspect was taken into custody after the crash.
Incident #2
The second video occurred on Friday, May 29 at around 3 p.m. when protests held in the eastern part of the city began to turn violent, particularly near Highway 101 and Alum Rock Avenue.
Protesters walked onto the freeway and temporarily blocked traffic.
As the protests continued, people gathered in the area of City Hall located on Santa Clara Street. Police say the crowd numbered in the hundreds and possible over 1,000.
Officers responded to the unrest and say a number of objects were thrown at them. Among them: large rocks, frozen plastic water bottles and glass bottles.
Around 5 p.m, the gathering was declared an unlawful assembly.
Officers formed a line by standing shoulder-to-shoulder in an attempt to control the crowd.
A man seen in the video got close to the officers which led officers to push him back with a wooden baton. Things quickly turned physical afterwards.
The man attempted to disarm the officer by pulling on his baton, police say. Police say the man then began to swing at the officer when other officers ran over to help and detain the man.
The man was eventually wrestled to the ground and placed into handcuffs.
Incident #3
On the same date as Incident #2, another group of officers were dealing with a crowd at San Jose City Hall around 5:45 p.m.
A man, seen in the video wearing a white T-shirt and a white mask, was identified after officers say he threw a bottle at an officer.
Protesters and police exchanged words before things turned physical.
Protester 1: "Everyone's upset. Everyone's angry. Why are you on that side? Why are you not standing with us right now? Why do you have a baton in your hand?"
Officer 1: "Shut up, b----."
Protester 2: "F--- you n----."
That’s when police shot what appears to be rubber bullets at protesters and things turned violent.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo issued a statement Friday after SJPD released the body camera footage.
“We appreciate the police department’s response to the direction of our memorandum and hope that the process we have laid out will continue to make future body-worn camera footage releases more immediately transparent.”
Sam Liccardo, San Jose Mayor
You can find a copy of SJPD’s full press release here.