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This man protected dozens of protesters at his home in Washington, DC, to protect them from arrest
A protester told CNN that crowds marched away from the White House on Monday night and ended up in a residential neighborhood where they were surrounded by police.
The protesters, who asked to be identified only as Meka, told CNN that the protest was peaceful and people were just trying to figure out what to do.
“I think someone gave an order, and they just pushed us, sprayed a club, trampled on people, and that’s when everyone started to panic,” said the 22-year senior college.
He looked around and saw his friend running up the stairs to the nearest house and a man waved to enter.
“I just ran towards the stairs and ran up the stairs and just started to get in as fast as possible,” said Meka. “At the moment, I don’t know if it’s the right decision, but I think it’s right.”
He said he looked out the window and saw more police officers than he could count and many people were arrested outside.
Metropolitan Police Department chief Peter Newsham said on Tuesday that no protesters in the house were arrested and that officers “continued to communicate with the owner of the house throughout the night.”
Newsham said 300 people were arrested Monday night, including 194 in the area around Rahul Dubey’s home.
He said he shouted “enter, enter the house” for about 10 minutes.
Dubey told WJLA that around 70 protesters entered and it was “chaos and chaos” for about an hour and a half when they tried to settle down and help people who had pepper sprayed.
CNN hasn’t been able to contact Dubey to comment.
Meka told CNN that he could not sleep on Monday night and the police tried several times to get the protesters out.
He said that at one time Dubey could get pizza and some members of the community also brought food.
Becca Thimmesch lives about two blocks away from Dubey and says he and three other people remained on the veranda overnight to observe police activity and check with protesters.
He said they also work to arrange trips to bring young children home once the curfew is lifted.
“Then around five o’clock, with an hour to go, community members began to appear left and right carrying food and water and cleaning their hands and cars and offering to bring people in,” said Thimmesch.
He said they had more volunteers than they needed when the protesters came out, so many of them stayed behind and helped clean up.
Thimmesch said he saw several residents on the street letting protesters enter their home.
“There is currently a global pandemic, and we have been told, ‘don’t leave people in your home, don’t share space with people,'” he said. “And you know, these random people make what I consider to be a great sacrifice, to try and guarantee the safety of young people they don’t know about.”
Dubey told WJLA that he considered the family of the protesters young and that he was relieved to get texts and messages that they were all safe at home.
“I hope my 13-year-old son grows to be as amazing as they are,” he said.
“I hope they continue to fight and I hope they go there today peacefully, like they did yesterday, and don’t blink because our country needs them, and needs you and everyone more than ever now.”
Lauren Koenig from CNN contributed to this story.
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