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A disturbing viral video shows a police officer in Salt Lake City, Utah, pushing an old man with a cane to the ground. You can watch the video later in this article.
The May 30 incident was captured on a live television broadcast by ABC4 News. While the station was live on air “during riots in Salt Lake City Saturday night they captured a police officer armed in protective gear shoving a man with a cane down onto the street,” the station reported.
Salt Lake City Police Department Chief Mike Brown told the television station that he has “opened investigation though Internal Affairs and the Civilian Review Board.”
The station posted the troubling video on its YouTube channel, and it subsequently went viral. The elderly man’s name is not known.
The officers, holding shields, bumped into the man from behind, knocking him down. “Sadly a man was just knocked off his feet,” a journalist says in the video. Officers helped the man back up. The incident happened outside the city library. SWAT teams were responding to violent protests at the time, according to the TV station. Police were trying to keep protesters from moving up the block. Other protesters were checking on the man.
Here’s what you need to know:
Other Videos Captured Disturbing Incidents Throughout the United States
TwitterThe man with the bow and arrow.
It was a night of troubling incidents. Also in Salt Lake City, a man with a bow-and-arrow showed up in the midst of a protest. You can watch that video here.
A series of other intense videos also emerged from cities throughout the country as George Floyd protests and riots escalated into violence in some areas. For example, in Chicago there was an all-out street brawl between police officers and protesters, according to this video. In Atlanta, a video caught a bicycle officer shoving a bike at a woman. Protesters threw an American flag in a river outside Trump Tower in Chicago. In New York City, videos captured two NYPD squad cars running over protesters.
In Oakland, a federal protection officer was shot and killed.
The Salt Lake City incident was part of a series of protests and riots that escalated throughout the United States in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A viral video showed a police officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on Floyd’s neck. Floyd died, Chauvin and three other officers were fired, and Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Businesses were torched and looted in Minneapolis, and the protests and riots then spread throughout the country in many major cities, with some peaceful and some not.
As the unrest escalated in Salt Lake City, Gov. Gary Herbert wrote, “We condemn violence and looting. I have activated the National Guard to help control the escalating situation in downtown Salt Lake City. I once again call on all who are protesting to do so peacefully.”
READ NEXT: What’s Known About George Floyd’s Cause of Death.