Protester shot in crotch after Trump rally in Arizona

  • 23/08/2017

Protests have escalated after a rally by US President Donald Trump in Arizona on Tuesday (local time), with police turning out armed with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Thousands of people filled the street outside the Phoenix Convention Center after the rally ended and things quickly got heated.

After protesters reportedly threw rocks and bottles at police, officers responded by firing pepper balls and tear gas.

One man was shot by what's believed to have been a rubber bullet, after kicking tear gas back towards officers.

The shooting was captured on video by CBS News-affiliate KPHO, showing a man wearing a gas mask approach the canister on the ground.

He jogs back to the other protesters after kicking the canister away. When he turns back to face the officers, he's shot in the crotch and falls to the ground.

Another protester can be seen helping him up and helping him jog away to shelter, bent double in apparent pain, before collapsing on the ground.

The video then pans across to a large line of police dressed in riot gear, vastly outnumbering those gathered, advancing on the protesters, as a reporter warns: "Anybody out here on the streets - go home!"

The Arizona rally was Mr Trump's first since a violent Charlottesville protest organised by white supremacists killed three people.

After those protests, Mr Trump had blamed violence "on all sides" for the death of a woman run over and killed by a white supremacist.

Newshub.