Police in Asheville, North Carolina, dismantled a makeshift medical aid station set up to treat activists and protesters after it violated a city curfew Wednesday evening, resulting in accusations of "military tactics" being used.
About a dozen officers in riot gear moved in to disperse those working the aid station in a private alley shortly after the 8 p.m. ET curfew went into effect, several outlets reported.
The incident occurred on the third night riots in the city following the death of a man in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
Nathan Prentice, who also goes by Greenleaf Clarke Prentice, wrote on the Asheville Politics Facebook page, police "targeted us," the Citizen Times reported.
"They intentionally slashed every water bottle and every piece of medical supplies there, then gassed them all so that we would give people chemical burns if we tried to help them," according to the post.
Prentice said the policed used "military tactics" to "destroy supply lines, so that people die."
Asheville Police Chief David Zack said in a statement his department has "tried to eliminate objects that can be thrown at protesters and law enforcement."
"Because water bottles, in particular, have been continuously used over the last three nights, officers destroyed them. Officers also searched for potentially dangerous objects, such as explosives," according to Chief Zack.
Sean Miller, a University of North Carolina-Asheville student who represented the medical group, said near a dozen medics were present when the police approached.
"They immediately, when they approached, they said, 'We're Asheville Police Department and you guys need to leave,'" Miller told The Associated Press. "They grabbed us by the shoulders and pushed us out of the alleyway where we were trying to provide medical support."
While Miller said the group had verbal waiver to remain past the curfew, Zack disputed that assertion.
Zack said the aid station "was not permitted by the city of Asheville and was located on private property, without the permission of the property owner."
Miller admitted the aid station, set up Tuesday, was established without permission of the property owner.
Riots have erupted in several major cities across the country after George Floyd died in police custody. A widely distributed video of Floyd, a black man, being restrained face down by a white police officer next to a patrol car, with the officer's knee on Floyd's neck has prompted accusations of systemic racist brutality.
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