Rochester journalists caught in sprays of less-lethal munitions while covering Daniel Prude protests

News10NBC reporter Charles Molineaux and Democrat and Chronicle photographer Shawn Dowd were hit with crowd-control munitions while covering protests in Rochester, New York, on Sept. 5, 2020.

For the fourth straight night, demonstrators marched in protest of the death of Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man who died by asphyxiation while in the custody of Rochester police in March; details surrounding his death came to light only after police body camera footage was released on Sept. 2. The protest was just one of many that had occurred across the nation throughout the summer in protest of police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protest on Sept. 5 seemingly started without contention, according to Molineaux’s Twitter feed. Around 8:30 p.m., the journalist tweeted, “Virtually no Rochester police presence visible as marchers preparing to step out.… except for the police drone periodically flying overhead.”

As the protest made its way to the Public Safety Building, though, police presence became visible, according to Molineaux, with the street blocked off a few blocks to the east. The journalist wrote: “Police have kept their distance throughout the march. Different story at Broad Street and exchange Boulevard where Exchange is blocked between here and police headquarters and a large detachment of police in tactical gear is behind the barricades.”

Molineaux tweeted at 10:15 that police had set up a barricade at Broad Street and Exchange Boulevard. Around 10:20, he reported that protesters had begun “throwing things” at police and that dispersal orders could be heard on loudspeakers. At 10:25, he wrote: “Police repeatedly announcing the assembly has been declared unlawful and crowds must disburse. Objects being thrown at the police, police now shooting pepper balls at the crowd.”

In the early hours of the next morning, photojournalist Brandon Schoepfel posted a photo of Molineaux with a bloodied mark near his left ear, writing, “Our reporter @WHEC_cmolineaux was hit by what we believe was a rubber bullet earlier in the night.”

Molineaux did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment.

The Rochester Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment, but Spectrum News reported that it had confirmed that the Rochester Police Department does not use rubber bullets. In a Sept. 6 press conference, city officials did not mention journalists being caught up in crowd-control munitions.

Democrat and Chronicle photographer Dowd was also hit with crowd-control munitions that night. Dowd told the Tracker that he and colleague Jamie Germano, both of whom had been hit with projectiles the night before, “made the conscious decision to [put themselves in the front line] again.”

Germano told the Tracker that he was caught up in tear gas, while Dowd said that he was hit with a volley of pepper balls, including on the heel of his right hand, which he’d been using to hold his camera to take a photo. Afterward, Dowd said, his hand was swollen and he avoided using his pinky finger for several weeks.

When the police officers “would open fire,” Dowd said, “it seemed like they were just spraying.” He said he saw a number of individuals who were unidentifiable as protesters or press, and connected that to the indiscriminate targeting of less-lethal weapons by the police.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.