DC Protester: What It's Like To Be Shot In Eye With Pepper Bullet

Update June 5, 9:10 a.m.: After a follow-up visit with the doctor, Matthew Leo Cima learned that his retina had been torn on impact. He will be undergoing surgery Friday for sub-macular hemorrhaging at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University. According to Cima, the doctor said it would be a miracle if he gained any significant vision back in his left eye. If he did not receive surgery, he could become completely blind in the next six months.

WASHINGTON, DC — Sunday was the third night in a row Matthew Leo Cima, a bartender and server who lives in Adams Morgan, had participated in the protests outside the White House. It was also the night that ended with him being shot in the eye with a pepper bullet.

Cima had been inspired to join protesters at the White House after watching the video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Lloyd, who later died in police custody.

"It is ridiculous that we have to watch people die for no reason on the news," Cima said. "And I think it's ridiculous that people have to die for no reason by the police, so that's why it seems like now you can't even bury your head in the sand if you wanted to."

On Friday, Cima joined demonstrators outside the White House. To him, law enforcement's preparation for the protesters seemed unusual.

"They didn't even have shields out," he said. "It was Secret Service with automatic weapons, deadly force weapons, not less-lethal rubber bullets or pepper bullets," he said. "They were not ready for that kind of show of protest."

Later in the evening, Cima joined a separate march that peeled off from the main body of demonstrators at the White House and headed to the U.S. Capitol. The protesters then went to the Eastern Market, marched down Interstate 395 and ended up in Chinatown around 11 p.m.

"Generally speaking, the mood was very, very peaceful," he said. "It might've been loud, but nobody did anything that was destructive."

On Saturday, the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police had moved the line back away from the White House to H Street, where it has remained since.

"Everybody was pretty peaceful," Cima said. "The police were pretty good as well. They were clearly very scared. If you stood on the front in front of the officers, they didn't leave much real estate between the line of protesters and themselves, and they looked frightened most of the time and people were angry. People were screaming. Water bottles were being thrown. Not that they can actually inflict any damage, but it's still scary when you have thousands of people screaming in your face."

Later that night, federal law enforcement officers deployed tear gas and started using their batons and shields against the demonstrators.

Around 10:30 p.m., Cima joined a crowd that had migrated to 16th Street and K to watch a car that someone had set on fire burn. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department established a line there to keep protesters back, then began deploying flash-bangs to disperse the crowd.

"At that point I said, 'Maybe it's time for me to go,'" he said. "Stampedes of people are running because they don't know what's going on or whether that's a flash-bang or a bullet or whatever. It becomes kind of dangerous. So I decided to leave probably around 11:30."

When Cima and his girlfriend arrived at Lafayette Park on Sunday, the scene started out just as peacefully as the previous two evenings.

"Curfew was at 11 and right at about 10 p.m. people started getting a little antsy, closer to those bathrooms and the church," he said. "If you're facing the White House, and H Street is to your back to your left, people down there started becoming a little bit aggressive, throwing a brick here and there, throwing fireworks, mortars every now and again."

In response, Park Police, Secret Service and the National Guard began shooting tear gas canisters and pepper bullets into the crowd. In the midst of the confusion, someone set the portable bathrooms on fire.

"The crowd was very divided," Cima said. "The crowd was very much, 'Stop throwing stuff. Stop doing anything aggressive. We're here to protest peacefully.' And some people weren't. The peaceful protesters attempted to reset the protest line again. This happens a lot, especially over the last few days. Things get out of hand. Things calm down. The line is set by peaceful protesters again."

At this point, Cima and several other protesters noticed a man on his hands and knees next to a canister of tear gas, clearly struggling to breathe. One of them kicked the canister away, and they attempted to move the man toward H Street to safety, but he collapsed. A protesting medic came up and began washing the man's face. While the rescuers were helping the man, they could feel pepper bullets striking their backs.

Cima rejoined the demonstrators.

"Women are always the most brave," he said. "They're the first ones resetting the lines, asking people to volunteer to come up. Everybody's walking towards the police, doing it slowly with their hands above their heads, including myself. Once I made it about 10 feet away, maybe less, very close, with very few people around me, an officer shot me in the face with a pepper ball."

The round hit Cima in the fleshy area between his left eyeball and eye socket. He stumbled to H Street, where medics cleaned him up and told him go to the hospital. With the help of his girlfriend and her roommate, he staggered back to his car on 19th Street, and they drove to the emergency room.

When they got to there, hospital staff wouldn't let Cima or his companions into the building because they were soaked in pepper spray. Cima was taken to a garage, where he stripped down to have the hazardous material washed off his body.

Once Cima was cleaned up, he was able to enter the hospital safely and be treated for his injury.

Fortunately, the bullet did not hit his eye directly, although blood began pooling inside. The doctor told him that most of his vision would return in a month. If it doesn't, then a surgical intervention would be able to remove the blood inside his left eye.

Despite his injury, Cima rejoined protesters on Tuesday night to show solidarity and support for their cause.

"In the end, if I don't regain full vision back in my eye, a little bit of vision loss in my eye is nothing in comparison to what African Americans face every day in this country, which is real bullets fired off by racist police officers," he said, about his decision to continue protesting. "And of course not every officer is racist. ... But there's too many of them. I wanted to go out there and support. I anticipate going out there again."

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