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US: Wake deputies defend force used against owner of Raleigh LGBTQ bar during protest

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“I was in the Army for eight years, so the bangs didn’t bother me, but my staff were scared out of their minds. If you’ve never been in that situation it appears like you’re going to be killed.”
— Tim Lemuel

Before the loud bursts, not long after midnight Monday, Tim Lemuel told the approaching officers that he was in the parking lot of his own business.

He was there, in front of Ruby Deluxe, a bar catering to LGBTQ people on South Salisbury Street, partly to deter vandals. The night before, the bar’s glass doors had been bashed in and a window was spray-painted with what appeared to be a white power symbol, he said.

Lemuel feared more damage amid a second night of protest against police brutality. More than 1,000 people had filled the streets of downtown Raleigh the night before. By early morning, storefronts had been shattered and streets littered with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets launched by police into the crowds.

Lemuel set up a first-aid station for protesters in his parking lot. He said he and some friends handed out water bottles and granola bars and helped people wash tear gas and pepper spray out of their eyes for about seven hours before they saw six law enforcement officers turn toward them.

“Move!” an officer can be heard yelling in a now widely circulated video of the event. “Move!”

“This is my business,” Lemuel yells back, gesturing toward the building. “I rent this place.”

The group of officers keeps approaching.

“You’ve been told!” an officer says.

Lemuel begins to walk toward the bar.

The officers round the corner of a neighboring building, and one pumps what appears to be a shotgun.

“I don’t care where you go, you gotta go,” the officer says.

Then the sound and flash of two shots.

“Move!” the officer yells, as Lemuel continues walking. “The game is over. Get out!”

“This is my business,” Lemuel says again, before the video cuts off. Read more via News and Observer