A protester in Indiana said he lost his right eye Saturday after being struck in the face by a tear gas canister that police fired to disperse a crowd demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis last week while in police custody.
Balin Brake, 21, said that as officers ordered the crowd in Fort Wayne to break up, he began running away and a tear gas canister struck his shoe, local station FOX 55 reported.
Brake, who works part-time at the news station, said when he turned around to see what happened, a second canister struck him in the face. The station said Brake was not working for them at the time of the incident.
A photo of Brake with a bloodied face was posted online.
“He saw [the canister] hit the ground after it hit him,” Brake’s mother, Rachel Simonis, told The Journal Gazette. She said that doctors found “nothing left but the shell of his eye."
Brake posted a photo of his face after undergoing an operation on his eye.
“I might have to have surgery for broken bones in my face within weeks to come but for now all that happened is I did end up losing my eye,” he wrote. “This pales in comparison to the hardships aftican (sic) americans have endured for decades. Stand up for what u believe in.”
The Fort Wayne Police Department issued a statement Sunday denying that an officer directly targeted Brake, according to local media outlets.
"According to our officers on the ground, the protester was still in the area after commands to leave the area were given,” the statement read. “Gas was deployed in the area and the protester bent over to pick up the canister to throw it back at officers as many others were trying to do.”
“When he bent over, another canister was deployed in the area and that canister skipped and hit the protester in the eye. There was no deliberate deployment of gas to any persons head.”
People run from tear gas canisters along U.S. 30 on Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Hobart, Ind., during protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (John J. Watkins/The Times via AP)
Brake disputed the police statement, telling the paper that he “absolutely” did not try to bend over and pick up the can because they’re “hot as hell,” and he wasn’t wearing gloves.
Following his surgery, Brake said that losing his eye was "small collateral for the battle we’re fighting," telling the paper that he believes white privilege is real.
"If you’re not going to use [your white privilege] to advocate for your fellow people, then that is just wrong," Brake said.
