Protesters run away after an explosion near St. Joseph's Hospital; witnesses say the unmarked black truck in the background was involved. Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

Protesters run away after an explosion near St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Paul. Witnesses say the black truck in the background was involved. Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

MnIndy reporters are on the streets of St. Paul following progress of the sanctioned March on the RNC and other marches that have splintered off. At around 1:40, reporter Jeff Severns Guntzel was following protesters down West 7th, along the official protest route. At the intersection of 7th and St. Peter, he heard an loud bang to his right and saw a cloud of greyish-green smoke. As he ran toward the smoke, Guntzel saw people running toward him. When he got there, he saw only a black truck with no identifying marker other than a small St. Paul police badge. As the truck pulled away, he saw officers in camouflage in the back of the vehicle.

“I asked some of the protesters what had happened, and they gave me the stink eye,” Guntzel says.

A reporter on the scene told Guntzel he saw a protester pick up a canister from the ground and ride off with it on his bike.

He asked John Lazoya, an officer driving the lead car for the sanctioned march, what had happened. “I don’t know,” he said, and suggested perhaps the protesters set it off. He asked Lazoya who was in the black truck. The reply: “I can’t comment on that.”

Likewise, a St. Paul police officer on the scene wouldn’t speak to the subject. Guntzel later found the men in the black truck and was met with only a blank look when he asked about what happened. “I can’t confirm any explosion,” the officer said.

Guntzel has talked to other witnesses, including two videographers who say they captured the incident on film (we’ll post their videos when they’re available). One, independent videographer Matt Holland, says he saw a camouflaged officer raise up a gun and fire. A minute or two later came the loud bang with smoke.

Another witness confirms that were two separate shots fired. He says the explosion with the smoke appeared to explode right out of the barrel of a gun. He thought it was a “mace ball.”

UPDATE: What Guntzel heard and saw was, in fact, the first of many crowd control tactics detailed elsewhere at Minnesota Independent.