At no point in your life do you EVER think the police would fire upon a crowd of people.

Attended the protest with two others on Saturday. Large group of peaceful protesters were in attendance. Around 4:45 PM, a large majority of the group has made its way to standing along the sidewalk on Clinton (on both sides of the street). As the mass of people crowded the sidewalk, some peaceful protesters went out into the crosswalk area and held their signs. By 4:53 PM, this group had taken to peacefully kneeling in protest of the brutality suffered at the hands of the FWPD the day before, as well as to be a loud collective voice for the continued brutality of Black Americans who suffer daily at the hands of a systemically racist system. At 5:04 PM, the mass in the street had grown to a considerable size, and they were allowing one lane of traffic to pass through. The cars that were allowed to drive through were filled with a variety of people who held different perspectives as to what was going on in downtown FW that day. At 5:04 I noted a police officer of some sort standing on the SE corner of the Rousseau building radioing to someone. At 5:15, I was unable to see if there was a police presence on the ground due to the number of protesters present. I can pinpoint the time at which the first unannounced tear gas canisters were fired into the crowd at either 5:16 or 5:17. As of 5:18 I had ran out of fear for my life/bodily injury and taken a seat near the police cars that were placed outside of the courthouse. Not long after sitting down, another gas canister was fired, almost striking me as it bounced off of the bumper of a police SUV to my right. The rest of the evening was spent assisting those who had received aggressive amounts of tear gas, bandaging wounds received from rubber bullets, and providing emotional support to those around me suffering through the same ordeal.
At no point in your life do you EVER think the police would fire upon a crowd of people. I assume this first assault of tear gas (5:17 PM-ish) on the crowd at Clinton/Main Street is when Balin Brake was gravely injured and was removed for medical treatment. No verbal warnings were given after the police mobilized in order to “control” the crowd. At 5:37 PM, the police had established a perimeter around the courthouse, extending to Clinton/Berry. At this time, unintelligible warnings were shouted from what seemed to be the corner of Clinton/Main, but myself as well as the others around me, exclaimed to the police that we were unable to understand what was expected. By 6:59 PM, a large group had marched to the MLK bridge and then marched back into downtown by taking 4th to Spy Run. Upon returning to the city, the sound of tear gas and rubber bullets being fired was still present. Myself and the people I had came downtown with had taken the time to again help those directly affected by the tear gas. At 7:30 PM, a large group had gathered again at the corner of Clinton/Berry. By 7:33 PM, more tear gas had been used against the protesters again with no verbal warning. Test gas canisters were again shot off at 7:48 PM onto Berry street, directly east of Clinton.
Clearly the FWPD had done a poor job of educating the general public as to avoid downtown. Protesters were utilized to warn the general public to go home and avoid downtown if they didn’t want the police shooting tear gas at them, because at this point in the evening, the show of force from the FWPD and whichever other supportive forces were attacking protesters.