Dakota Access protester fights to save arm after explosion

Officers on scene said two males and a female were near a remaining burned vehicle, left from a October 27 clash between opponents of the crude oil pipeline and law enforcement, on the north side of Backwater Bridge.

Daniel Kanahele, 64, a native Hawaiian who joined the protest last week, said he was hit with tear gas, water spray and a rubber bullet in a leg, and “it took me off my feet”. “We don’t throw grenades at people”, Wayne said about police tactics. “None. Blasting these innocent people with concussion grenades, rubber bullets the size of baseballs and a water cannon in freezing weather was a deliberate act of terror sanctioned by the sheriff”.

Initially, protesters feared the worst: Doctors would have to amputate her arm due to the explosion. Her skin was torn away, exposing bone.

Sophia Wilansky, a 2016 graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, has already undergone multiple surgeries after the grenade struck her arm sometime during the night. He said, “She’s devastated”.

Wayne Wilansky said his daughter was injured in the left forearm, “taking most of the undersurface of her left arm with it”. Police had previously accused the protesters of rioting.

Authorities said police spotted demonstrators with cylinder objects that may have been rigged with explosives.

Sunday’s skirmishes began around 6 p.m. after protesters removed a burned-out truck on what’s known as the Backwater Bridge, not far from the encampment where they’ve been for weeks as they demonstrate against the pipeline. The sheriff’s department said that the protesters were “very aggressive” and were trying to “flank and attack the law-enforcement line”.

“Sophia has always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and resistance”, her GoFundMe page states.

Speaking to the New York Daily News, Wilansky’s friend and fellow protestor Vaimoana Niumeitolu said it was a concussion grenade fired by police that caused the explosion. Speaking at a press conference Kirchmeier went to lengths to impress that “we don’t have a water cannon”. She added that medics first encountered the injured woman at a casino near the protests.

“It wasn’t from our law enforcement, because we didn’t deploy anything that should have caused that type of damage to her arm”, spokeswoman Maxine Herr told the Times.

“The injuries sustained are inconsistent with any resources utilized by law enforcement and are not a direct result of any tools or weapons used by law enforcement”, Lt. Tom Iverson of the Highway Patrol said in a news release.

Protesters said their actions were peaceful and reported hundreds of injuries, including a broken kneecap and a cardiac arrest.

The confrontation comes after pipeline protests earlier this month saw 14 people arrested at North Dakota’s State Capitol.

At one point in Gilbertt’s video, a boom is heard and sparks can be seen flying into the air. Concussion grenades are non-lethal devices that produce a blinding flash of light and loud sound.

Grisly photos of Wilansky’s injuries circulated on social media. “I have seen in the last two days some very serious, nearly crimes against humanity against citizens”.

A GoFundMe account set up for Wilansky raised almost $200,000 in just 18 hours.

Authorities say the use of water spray in below-freezing temperatures against Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters was necessary, and they won’t rule out doing it again.

Demonstrators are supporting leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which opposes the 1,200-mile, four-state pipeline that is being built to carry oil from western North Dakota to a shipping point in IL.

The sheriff’s department told the Tribune that the bridge has been closed since October because transportation officials were concerned about its structural integrity.