As a Fort Wayne resident, I am disgusted by the behavior and deceit of the FWPD in this situation

Exercising our right to demand change in what we are seeing in our country’s law enforcement system, my family arrived at the protest about 6pm. Many of us walked to the MLK bridge and back, some in the streets and blocking traffic and then going back to the sidewalk, while others stayed at the courthouse. This continued throughout the time that we were there. It was powerful and beautiful. I was so happy to see so many people of all walks of life coming together to stand against what they know is wrong. At one point, traffic was blocked again, and approximately 7 or 8 young people climbed on a semi. At this time, my family was still peacefully protesting on the corner of that same intersection where traffic was blocked. The police came down the sidewalk on one side of the street, and without any warning, started spraying people in their path with a gas type chemical that was burning people’s eyes, while walking towards the intersection (the chief of police says this didn’t happen in his press conference, but I have video of this). At this point, the police went into a line formation. My family was on the corner of Main and Clinton, where the police were lined up. Again, with no warning, they tossed tear gas canisters at us. People started running across the courthouse lawn toward Berry St. The police began shooting cans of tear gas almost a block away across the courthouse green, where we were running towards, in order to get away from them. My 15-year-old fell to the ground twice, gagging and choking on tear gas. He was carried at one point by other protesters and helped by volunteer medics across the courthouse lawn and were met by more canisters of gas. At one point, we had to go into a parking garage stairwell that was enclosed just to breathe and figure out how we will be able to make it back to our car.
As a Fort Wayne resident, I am disgusted by the behavior and deceit of the FWPD in this situation. Not only did they use excessive force on people at a peaceful protest, who were protesting against excessive force of police, but the Chief of police has continued to mislead the people of Fort Wayne to believe that the tear gas was a needed measure due to violence. There were several hundred people who did absolutely nothing wrong and were tear gassed. Chief Reed says the tear gas came after the line formed across Clinton St. I was there. This is false and countless videos prove it. He also said the police did not react until after warnings were given and ignored. I was 15 feet away, there were no warnings given and I have videos to prove this. Chief Reed says rocks and bottles were thrown prior to tear gas being deployed. There was no violence prior to the gas being deployed. There was blocked traffic and kids on a semi. That is all. I have videos that prove this. I stood 15 feet from where those officers stood lined up. NEVER was a verbal warning of any kind given. If I didn’t hear a warning from 15 feet away from the officers, then how would the people almost a block away hear a warning. Yet they were tear gassed too.
I believe there are both good and bad in every group, including law enforcement. However, the actions of our city’s police department in this situation are inexcusable, Chief Reed has provided false information repeatedly about the timeline of events. Both he and the FWPD need to be held accountable for their actions. It has been more than two weeks since this happened. I have seen absolutely no accountability, and many people, including myself, have sent in the videos showing what actually happened to city council, the mayor, the chief and the captain.
As a parent of a teenager, I am struggling to explain to my child that while there are good police officers out there, I have not heard of a single officer in his own city speak up to say that what happened to him should not have happened to a kid who did nothing wrong.