On Wednesday night in Minneapolis, a 10-year-old boy accompanied his mother to protests following the announcement that no charges would be pursued in the case of the shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson.
While he was there with his mother, he says he was maced.
Taye Montgomery, who came to the protest with his mother, Susan, recalled the incident to KMSP:
It happened so fast. There was this one lady who was in a whole bunch of people who said park the car, park the car. Then I couldn’t find my mom and this cop pulled up with sirens, and then started Macing everyone, didn’t give us no warning or nothing.
Susan posted an image of her son with milk in his eyes to counteract the chemical irritant that police sprayed into the crowd but said on Thursday that he was getting checked out for blurriness in his vision.
Watch a full report on the disturbing incident below:
Despite his harrowing experience, Taye insisted that he wanted the protests to remain peaceful.
“Don’t be angry about what happened to me,” Taye said. “Don’t, like, be mad, just feel sad. I don’t want people to be mad. At least I got maced and not shot.”
Watch an officer mace protesters below: (*Warning* Explicit Language)
MPLS police are macing kids. #MPLS2Madison pic.twitter.com/WinZJRS7gr
— wakandanqueer (@wakandanqueer) May 14, 2015
As for Susan, she explained her decision to bring her young son to the protest to those who might criticize her for putting her child in danger:
When I’m taking him to these things, I know I’m going to get flack. I already have family members that don’t agree. I’ve gotten that for years, but my children mean the world to me and I want those colors to shine out, that they have a voice and their life matters.