The ACLU of D.C. is suing the District and eight unnamed D.C. police officers for spraying chemical irritants and firing stun grenades at racial justice protesters and two photojournalists near Black Lives Matter Plaza last summer.

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       The federal lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of Oyoma Asinor and Bryan Dozier, two independent photojournalists, seeks a trial by jury and compensation for their injuries. The photojournalists allege officers indiscriminately used chemical irritants and stun grenades against a crowd they were in on Aug. 29, 2020, despite emergency policing legislation D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) signed the previous month prohibiting the use of such chemicals on peaceful protesters.

       The lawsuit also asserts D.C. police wrongfully arrested and held Asinor overnight for about 17 hours on Aug. 31 before releasing him without charges. Officers also refused to return his cellphone, camera and goggles for nearly a year, the suit states.

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       (Asinor’s work has been published by The Washington Post, according to the lawsuit).

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       “MPD flagrantly used tactics that D.C. laws explicitly ban,” Megan Yan, an attorney with the ACLU of the District of Columbia said in a statement. “It’s especially ironic that MPD responded to these demonstrations with the kind of violence that the protestors were protesting.”

       The Office of the Attorney General, which is responsible for defending District agencies in lawsuits, declined to comment. D.C. police and the local union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

       Mass protests against racism and police brutality erupted in the District and across the country last summer after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in May 2020. The ACLU lawsuit focuses on two dates from that year, Aug. 29 and 31, describing in detail the alleged police action against the independent photojournalists covering racial justice protests.

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       Asinor and Dozier brought their cameras to document the protests the night of Aug. 29 near Black Lives Matter Plaza.

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       Dozier and Asinor did not report seeing demonstrators throw anything at the officers or otherwise touch them while they verbally protested and held signs. But around 11:30 p.m., Dozier heard a “hissing sound” and police dispersed a chemical irritant throughout the area, according to the lawsuit. As Dozier tried to move away from the chemical irritants, the suit states, another officer released more munitions.

       “Knowing the only exit was to run back through the smoke that they had fired, because police were forcing us that way, was the most terrifying part,” Dozier said Thursday.

       By the time Dozier got home, he said he suffered hours of struggling to breathe, coughing and dry heaving from the chemical irritants.

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       The next night Asinor was back at Black Lives Matter Plaza to document the protests as they continued into the early morning of Aug. 31. He saw water bottles thrown toward D.C. police officers, which officers responded with “smoke munition,” at least one stun grenade and rubber bullets.

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       Asinor tried to escape, but an officer, identified as Jane Doe in the suit, struck him, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him, despite Asinor identifying himself as a member of the press, according to the suit. While he remained in police custody over night, he said his skin burned from the chemical irritants.

       “It seems like a lot of things go out the window when you’re a Black man in handcuffs on the ground,” said Asinor, who is Black. “You really start to think about a lot of different scenarios.”

       Dozier and Asinor say their encounters with police that day have left them emotionally scarred.

       Dozier, who also said an officer grabbed and lifted him in the air before pushing him to the ground, still attends biweekly therapy sessions to help with PTSD symptoms, including a fear of being trapped without an exit and heightened sensitivity to loud noises.

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       “It was frightening and panicky. You didn’t know what the police were going to do next,” Dozier said in an interview. “I want people to know that these weapons are being used against peaceful demonstrators, and that it’s not only a violation of rights, but it threatens a free press, citizen journalists, professional journalists. Everybody there had their lives threatened just trying to do their jobs.”

       Asinor had difficulty sleeping for weeks, the suit states, and still feels “jittery and anxious” around loud noises like fireworks.

       Almost a year later, Asinor said he still tries to avoid the area of Black Lives Matter Plaza and no longer covers or attends protests.