© Sandy Huffaker / ReutersPolice officials lob tear gas to try and disperse demonstrators after a Donald Trump campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. August 22, 2017.
Hundreds of protesters were reportedly dispersed at the scene outside the downtown Phoenix Convention Center, where Trump spoke to thousands of supporters earlier.
Ruptly news agency footage shows people shouting and running away from tear gas deployed by police.
"People in the crowd have begun throwing rocks and bottles at police. They also dispersed some gas in the area," Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sergeant Jonathan Howard said, as quoted by Reuters.
"Police have responded with pepper balls and OC [oleoresin capsicum] spray in an attempt to disperse the crowd and stop the assaults," Howard added.
After police dispersed non-complying protesters, a small crowd with anti-Trump banners continued to demonstrate next to the police cordon. However, police in riot gear later approached the chanting protesters and pushed them away from the scene.
There were some altercations as the thousands of Trump supporters were leaving the venue. One video shows several Trump supporters trying to leave the area in a vehicle being attacked by rioters. One man in the car was punched on the head while a female teenager sits behind him.
On Tuesday evening, around 19,000 people attended Trump's campaign-style rally at the downtown Phoenix Convention Center.
The US leader lambasted the mainstream media for what he believes to be unfair coverage of his statements on the violence in Charlottesville, which left one person dead and 19 people injured.
Outside the convention center, hundreds of anti-Trump protesters gathered.
Two people were arrested for aggravated assault of a police officer, Williams said.
An organizer of one of the largest protests said his group did not start the violence, KPHO-TV reported.
"It was peaceful," Carlos Garcia of Puente Arizona told the station. "We started getting shot at by rubber bullets."
Tuesday's protest was peculiar in part due to the presence of a group called Phoenix John Brown Gun Club. It is the armed militia component of the organization called Redneck Revolt, which describes itself as "a pro-worker, anti-racist organization that focuses on working class liberation from the oppressive systems which dominate our lives."
Members of the club openly carried their AR15 rifles - as allowed by Arizona law - and marched with anti-Trump protesters, but their demonstration went peacefully.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and other Democrats in Arizona had urged Trump to cancel the rally which gathered some 19,000 of his supporters, saying that country "is still healing" following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 and that Trump would further division.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter