A man in Dallas, Texas, ran after protesters with a sword in his hand on Saturday night and was then badly injured. A viral video filmed by a bystander shows people throwing trash at the man, at which point he charged at them with his over-sized blade raised. Fair warning: this video is extremely graphic.
The shocking video of the man with the sword was filmed late on Saturday night in Dallas, beginning mid-confrontation. It shows him yelling back and forth with the demonstrators, who were throwing trash and rocks at him. He pulled a long blade from a sheath at his hip and chased after one of them, causing several protesters to gang up on him all at once, beating him with fists and skateboards. When they backed away, he was bloody and unconscious in the street.
Further video shows protesters — including some of the ones involved in the initial scuffle — turning the man over and trying to help him. One pulled the weapon from his hand, revealing that it was a real short sword with a double-edged blade. The demonstrators agreed among themselves that "he was trying to kill someone" with the weapon. The man regained consciousness eventually and was seen walking to an ambulance.
Outside of the video evidence itself, there is little context for this shocking imagery. According to a report by The Daily Mail, the Dallas Police Department later said that the man was in "stable condition." The police said that the man was on the street to "allegedly protect his neighborhood from protesters."
The outlet also echoed some of the chatter among alleged witnesses on social media, some of whom said the man in the video was a business owner trying to chase people away from his shop. So far, this has not been confirmed. The whole incident took place in the Victory Park area of the city.
A man on Twitter has identified himself as the sword-wielder in the video, though his story has not yet been confirmed either. In a series of tweets, he claimed that he was not a business owner but a concerned citizen.
Dallas has had a total of 74 arrests in the last week, with protests escalating to violent encounters since Monday. The Black Lives Matter movement is responding to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has now been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, but many protesters say they want to see a more systemic change to stop this pattern of unarmed African-Americans being killed.
Major cities all over the country have seen similar demonstrations this week with similar escalations. However, this video from Dallas has stood out as one of the most shocking so far. Here is a break-down of what Twitter is saying about this bloody encounter.