A journalist at Standing Rock was shot by police for no reason—and caught the awful moment on video

By Katherine Krueger  |  November 3, 2016 | 9:53pm
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As peaceful protests over the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline again turn violent, one journalist near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation in North Dakota captured shocking video showing herself being shot by police out of nowhere as she conducted an interview.

Erin Schrode, an activist and journalist, was doing an interview at the edge of the Cantapeta Creek when police shot her with a rubber bullet. In her video of the incident, Schrode can be heard screaming, “Ow!” before crumbling to the ground.

In a Facebook post, Schrode, who has written for Fusion in the past, said she was badly shaken after “militarized police” shot her at “point-blank range.”

Speaking to me on Thursday, Schrode said that, when she was shot, she couldn’t fully comprehend what had just happened but just remembered being in “excruciating pain.”

“I couldn’t fathom that I’d just been hit. Why would they target me? Why would they shoot anyone?” she said. “There was absolutely nothing violent, aggressive, provocative going on at the protests yesterday.”

At first, Schrode didn’t know she’d captured video of the incident. After writing about the experience on social media, she woke up on Thursday to a flurry of supportive messages. But there were others who questioned her story, even suggesting she was lying about the whole thing.

When she realized there was video on her phone of the run-in, she said went “into hysterics.”

“I can’t believe what is happening here in Standing Rock,” Schrode said, her voice wavering. “It’s a scene like I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world, and it’s right here at home.”

After the run-in, Schrode described thinking: “Who am I to say I’m in pain? Who am I to have a pity party around me when literally people are up there putting their lives on the line every day, when the land is being desecrated?”

En route to a sacred burial ground, #NoDAPL activists were met by a line of police, streams of pepper spray and rubber bullets: pic.twitter.com/UOmAaLUEcc
— Fusion (@Fusion) November 3, 2016

But she made clear that she’s not leaving Standing Rock until justice is served.

WATCH: More pepper spray, more rubber bullets. More police attacks on peaceful NoDAPL demonstrations.

 
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