REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant
In photographs and video footage of the incident, he wore a pink shirt, beige trousers and his feet were bare. With places to take cover, Bryant said he was not overly worried at that point, even when the man appeared to cock his weapon. Then Patricia McCloskey appeared from the front of the house holding a handgun. Bryant quickly became more concerned. "She had her finger on the trigger and looked nervous and I became a little bit more worried, as there were kids out there and she was sporadically pointing the gun at random people," he recalled. "I just was trying to make frames. Trying to stay safe, trying to dodge the barrel of the gun and stay out of sight and out of line. I'm a big, Black man and I always have to pay attention to that anyway." The McCloskeys have said they feared for their lives on Sunday and that protesters damaged a wrought-iron gate at an entrance to the wealthy neighbourhood. "Their actions were borne solely of fear and apprehension, the genesis of which was not race related. In fact, the agitators responsible for the trepidation were white," their lawyer said in a statement sent to Reuters. "The McCloskeys want to make sure no one thinks less of Black Lives Matter (protest movement), its message and the means it is employing to get its message out because of the actions of a few white individuals who tarnished a peaceful protest."
