CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Hours after President Donald Trump was nominated for a second term inside the Charlotte Convention Center on Aug. 24, dozens of people gathered in an uptown park to protest.
Insults and shouts filled the air, along with a bright orange aerosol that left people coughing and their eyes stinging as they spit into the grass at Marshall Park.
The use of pepper spray by police against protesters that afternoon was the first of several times law enforcement officers used the irritant for crowd control that day and later said some protesters had turned violent.
But activists who took part in the protests say they weren't the violent ones.
In one instance, video by photojournalist Jeff Taylor shows two people being directly targeted by an officer using pepper spray as they approached an injured woman on the ground to help her up.
The Charlotte News Observer has reviewed statements from CMPD officials during and after the protests, as well as video captured during protests and marches, which spanned more than six hours on Aug. 24. Details come from first-hand witness accounts, video footage and observations by reporters on the ground that night.
While some of those who have been criminally charged by police are accused of assaulting officers, videos from that afternoon and night show several people targeted or injured by pepper spray while not engaged in violence.
Witnesses told the Observer that some people were detained or sprayed during protests as they were blocked in by police officers on bikes. The night before, on Aug. 23, pepper spray was used on the crowd when protesters blocked an uptown intersection.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officials refused to give details on the specific uses of pepper spray during protests sparked by the city's hosting of the Republican National Convention, citing each instance was under investigation.
Still, CMPD Police Chief Johnny Jennings said recently that officer actions are under review because the department internally investigates any use of force, including deployment of pepper spray.
Under CMPD policy, pepper spray is not permitted to be used against nonviolent demonstrators but the policy offers police wide discretion in whether the use is justified if officers perceive an "imminent threat." Jennings said he believes some nonviolent protesters experienced "residual effects" from the waft of pepper spray in the air but that the use of the irritant was warranted.
"I've looked at the videos," Jennings said at a news conference on Aug. 26.
" ... The people that were sprayed were involved in active aggression ... assaulting officers or taking bicycles," he said.
According to CMPD's directives, which outline the department's policies, "OC spray" or pepper spray "will not be immediately deployed where a person or group of persons are participating in a passive nonviolent protest unless there is an imminent threat to the officer or another person's safety."
CMPD Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said what constitutes an "imminent threat" can hinge on several factors: how far protesters are from officers, the number of officers and protesters present and what kind of language protesters direct at police and whether they comply with police orders.
But witnesses who recently spoke with the Observer say they saw protesters hit with spray while trying to obey officers' commands.
At Marshall Park, officers used pepper spray against a man CMPD officials accuse of grabbing an officer's bicycle. Although the man is seen on video refusing to leave the roadway while officers had commanded him to "move back," video captured in the moments leading up to the use of pepper spray show no direct contact between the man and the officer.
One clip from video footage captured by WCCB Charlotte shows the man standing face-to-face with an officer as the officer advances. It's not clear whether the man grabs the bicycle or is hit with the bicycle. The view of the camera is partially blocked by a parked car.
Estes, in an interview with the Observer, said he thinks video of officers using pepper spray is an incomplete picture. He added that pepper spray is considered an intermediary step between officers giving verbal commands and officers going "hands on" to gain compliance.
"In other words, you can get irritated in your eyes, but officers and citizens don't have to fight each other," he said.
But City Council member Braxton Winston said he believes CMPD's use of chemical agents is dangerous and unnecessary. Winston was one of several people hit with pepper spray during a protest on Aug. 24.
"Their only point is to inflict pain," he said. "With these agents, it amplifies the chaos."
Across the country, law enforcement agencies face intense scrutiny over how police officers use force or violence against citizens.
Police accounts and statements have increasingly come into question when analyzed alongside witness accounts and video footage. George Floyd, who died in June after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck, was originally reported to appear "to be suffering medical distress" after he resisted arrest and was handcuffed. Cellphone video showed Floyd pleading for air while officers stood by.
And just last week in Charlotte, after CMPD officials initially denied trapping protesters during an earlier Black Lives Matter protest, new video footage revealed officers expressing intentions to "bottle neck" and "hammer their ass with gas," referring to protesters.
Jennings has since acknowledged that protesters found themselves unable to escape the tear gas but that was not the department's intent.
