SAN ANTONIO -- Kimiya Denise arrived to Travis Park in downtown San Antonio Saturday two hours before the rally honoring the life of George Floyd started.
“More people are arriving, the speakers are getting set up and it’s go time,” Denise says.
As the main organizer, Denise was on her toes.
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“Please stay hydrated, please. Stay up because we will need you today,” Denise shouted to the hundreds in attendance.
People with opposing views showed up to rally, but organizers kept the group on their intended path - mourning the loss of Floyd.
“Watch yourself because ya’ll are outnumbered. Y’all may think you outnumber me but you are really outnumbered,” a man told the group of activists. “You are in San Antonio, so calm down.”
Denise responded as San Antonio police officers were speaking to him.
“This is a peaceful demonstration and if you are here to cause problems then you need to go,” she says.
Kimiya Denise marches with protesters in downtown San Antonio, Texas, in this image from May 30, 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)
Minutes before the gathering commenced, she took a seat on the stage with a microphone resting in her hand.
“My energy level is … that wore me out already but we are just getting started,” Denise says.
Hundreds of San Antonians chanted and listened to the guest speakers before they hit the streets.
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“I’m trying to make sure that I keep my breath so I can keep leading chants, but it's amazing the turnout is amazing,” Denise said, smiling as she marched. “I’m so proud of San Antonio.”
Marchers rallied at the San Antonio Police Department headquarters.
“When I say black lives, you say matter, black lives,” she chants. “When I say George, you say Floyd, George.”
After it concluded marchers went back to Travis Park.
“Yes, Black Lives Matter, San Antonio was waiting for this and they showed up and showed today,” Denise says. “There are more people behind us.”
After Denise went home, folks continued to show up at Travis Park and at the Alamo, where a group of armed citizens called the Texas Freedom Force had gathered.
“We are not facing towards y’all, we are facing away from the Alamo, we are protecting the Alamo. That’s it,” one of the group members told a protester.
As tensions rose and water bottles were thrown, SAPD officers got involved. After a bottle hit one man in the head, everything subsided — for a moment.
However, the intensity rose again as the sun set.
San Antonio police officers deploy tear gas in this image from May 30, 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)
A young woman who was exposed tear gas was coughing on the street in front of a wall of police officers. The tear gas missed demonstrator Steven Reyes, who was standing next to the young woman, who also got her phone confiscated.
“This one right here, if you want to get his name, this gentleman pushed her, hit her phone out of her hand,” Reyes said, pointing to an SAPD officer, "which we were trying to get. They weren’t having any of it. They were shoving the [expletive] out of us.”
As Reyes was being interviewed, an SAPD officer returned the confiscated phone to Reyes.
But the violence didn’t stop there.
Dozens of people started breaking into local businesses on East Houston Street and officers started to shoot rubber bullets.
Loud bangs from rubber bullets and concerned voices echoed down the street.
“This cannot happen here in San Antonio,” a woman shouts.
After an altercation between two men in the middle of a street, police officers tossed more tear gas.
The same woman stood on a sidewalk covered in broken glass, with her hands held tight and a look of dismay.
These events were not the change many came here seeking but the outcry has changed downtown San Antonio.
Protesters face off with San Antonio police officers in this image from May 30, 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)