Story at a glance
- Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed a curfew on residents from 7 p.m. on June 1 until 6 a.m. the next morning.
- Dozens of protestors fleeing police officers took shelter inside Rahul Dubey’s home Monday night.
- Police remained outside of the home late into the night, allowing protesters to leave in the morning.
A tense situation between protesters and police officers in the nation’s capital was catalogued on social media as demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism continued across the United States.
Rahul Dubey, 44, is a first generation Indian American and owner of the Alvarez Dubey Trading Co. He lives in a house on Swann Street, in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and was sitting on his stoop at around 8:30 p.m., he told ABC7, when police blocked off the one-way road at 15th Street. Fifteen minutes later, chaos broke out and Dubey opened his front door and began yelling, “get inside.”
Tense situation on Swann Street in DC. Cops surrounded protesters and started firing pepper spray. A resident let more than 100 protesters take shelter in his home. “I’m not letting any of these kids out of my sight,” he told me over the phone. pic.twitter.com/Bk6NOIbAwf
— Derek Hawkins (@D_Hawk) June 2, 2020
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Dubey said police threw pepper spray through the window as protesters washed their faces with water and milk. His 13-year-old son was visiting a friend in another state and was not home at the time, so he allowed protesters upstairs into his room.
Allison Lane was one of the protesters trapped on Swann Street after curfew on Monday night. At 9:56 p.m., she tweeted that she was inside Dubey’s house with about 100 others after cops “corralled” them on the street and sprayed them down. She continued tweeting updates throughout the night and said well-wishers, including Kishan Putta, who is currently running for D.C. council, had sent food and masks to the home. At 6:01 a.m Lane tweeted that protesters had begun leaving Dubey’s home.
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I’m at a house in DC after being pepper sprayed and knocked down by the police. There are about 100 of us in a house surrounded by cops. All the neighbors on this street opened their doors and are tending to protesters. The cops corralled us on this street and sprayed us down.
— Allison Lane (@allieblablah) June 2, 2020
Dubey spoke to ABC7 from outside his home on Tuesday morning, hailed as a hero by people on social media and neighbors who had gathered outside.
“I hope that my 13-year-old son grows up to be just as amazing as [the protesters] are, and I hope that they continue to fight, and I hope they go out there today peacefully as they did yesterday and not blink because our country needs them and needs you and everybody more than ever right now,” Dubey told ABC7.
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