A Black Lives Matter activist has claimed he was shot in the groin with a rubber bullet during a protest in Los Angeles, causing him to lose a testicle.
South African native Bradley Steyn, who was involved in anti-apartheid protests in South Africa when he was younger, claims the LAPD are responsible for his injuries, and he now plans to sue.
Steyn claims he was attacked by law enforcement during a May 30 George Floyd protest in Los Angeles' Fairfax district.
He has since started a GoFundMe page to cover his medical bills and legal funds, and is looking to raise $17,000.
On the page, he describes the events of May 30. 'I was marching peacefully with at the Black Lives Matter march on Saturday the 30th May, here in Los Angeles, near Fairfax in memory of George Floyd and so many other black Americans that have been murdered in America. Apartheid-style,' he writes.
'At the march I was shot by a member of the LAPD with a rubber bullet in the testicles. One of which was ruptured and led to me almost bleeding out on the streets of Los Angeles.'
Steyn shared pictures of him lying in a hospital bed, showing a mark on his chest where he claims he was beaten, and a large bruise on his left leg where he was shot, as well as a cast covering his groin.
In an interview with Select Times Live shortly after the incident, Steyn said: 'Police used batons to a young woman who was sitting on her knees.
'I tried to get him off her, and I was hit across chest by a police baton. A policeman saw me trying to physically push the cop off her and hit me in the chest. Then he aimed for my genitalia – he was two or three feet away – and shot directly into my genitalia.'
Speaking to South African network Newzroom Afrika earlier this month, Steyn said that the violence he witnessed reminded him of what he had witnessed in South Africa in his younger years.
'Growing up in South Africa, we were exposed to terrible violence and protests and police brutality,' Steyn said.
'Here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, I thought that I could take my 10-year-old daughter to a protest and show her that you need to stand up to governments and authorities that abused their power.'
At the last minute, Steyn decided not to take his young daughter to the protests fearing that violence could break out.
He claims that the protest was largely a peaceful one, ... (Read more)
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