Journalist covering BLM protests hit with projectiles on fourth straight day

Independent photojournalist Martin Hawk was hit multiple times with crowd-control munitions and chemical irritants fired by law enforcement as he covered protests against police brutality in Rochester, New York, on Sept. 5, 2020.

The protests were sparked by the Sept. 2 release of police body camera footage of the treatment of Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man who died in March 2020 after Rochester police forcefully restrained him during a mental health emergency.

The demonstrations — which Hawk documented four straight days starting Sept. 2 — were among many that occurred across the U.S. during the summer of 2020 in protest of police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Hawk, whose legal name is Reynaldo DeGuzman, is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed as a class action complaint in April 2021 against the city of Rochester and the surrounding county, the police department, other area law enforcement agencies, elected officials and individual officers. The suit alleges a culture of police brutality against people of color and the use of excessive force in response to the protests in the summer of 2020.

The journalist, who is himself Black and Asian American, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that in the early morning of Sept. 5 — after being struck with a pepper ball round and having his camera damaged hours before — he was hit again, this time in the helmet, with what might have been a tear gas canister.

He said he fell to the ground, concussed, and vomited after he woke up. Another journalist dragged him from the street onto a lawn and administered saline solution to treat the tear gas exposure.

Hawk said that he had press identification on both sides of a plate carrier — a type of body armor he wore — and was carrying professional cameras and equipment.

He went back out to cover more protests that evening, which Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle described as “the largest and most tumultuous night of protests thus far.”

The journalist told the Tracker that at one point, he was standing on a sidewalk and trying to fix his goggles, which were cracked and allowing tear gas to seep in, “so I was kind of shooting blind.” It was then that he was shot in the ribs by a state police officer from around six feet away — aiming for the side of his body not covered by his plate carrier. He was also hit in the thigh.

According to the complaint, the journalist was struck with 40 mm kinetic impact projectiles.

At the time, there was no one else near him, and he was clearly marked as press on the front and back of his body armor, and was holding a large filming rig, the journalist told the Tracker.

Capt. Gregory Bello, the Police Department’s public information officer, told the Tracker in an email that he was “not aware of any targeted force being used” against Hawk due to his status as a member of the media.

He added that it appears that the photojournalist “was in close proximity to a riotous crowd, in which crowd control measures were utilized. The appropriateness of the use of those measures is still being determined in court.”

The State Police public information office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Hawk was also hit with crowd-control munitions while covering protests on four other days in September 2020.

The Tracker has also documented more than 10 other incidents in which journalists were assaulted or caught in chemical irritants covering the September 2020 protests in Rochester.