Jake Paul — best known for his YouTube fame — claims that he was tear-gassed while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Scottsdale.
A protest was taking place in Scottsdale, Arizona, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers.
As Paul tells it, he was filming looters that were stealing from stores at the Fashion Square mall. That’s when he claims that he was attacked by police officers.
Jake Paul takes to Instagram
Paul shared some footage to his Instagram Story account, where he didn’t hold back on what he had to say. He wrote, “bunch of f***ing idiots. Literally, I walked right here, right up to there these f***ing idiots tear-gassed me. I ain’t doing s**t, bro. Look at them pointing guns at me… America is in ruins.”
There was a bit of a backlash on social media, with claims that Paul was among the looters that were breaking into the Scottsdale stores. Paul responded on Twitter to all of that.
The full Twitter post that Paul made is shared below, but he stated in part that “To be absolutely clear, neither I nor anyone in our group was engaged in any looting or vandalism.”
Paul goes on to state that, “For context, we spent the day doing our part to peacefully protest one of the most horrific injustices our country has ever seen, which led to us being tear-gassed for filming the events and brutality that were unfolding in Arizona.”
While also saying that “it’s important that people see it and collectively figure out how to move forward in a healthy way,” he finished his post by stating that “We are all doing the best we can to be helpful and raise awareness; this is not the time to attack each other, it’s time to join together and evolve.”
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) May 31, 2020
The incident involving Jake Paul is just one of many encounters that have taken place with celebrities over the past few days.
More celebrities were seen at protests around the country
As we previously reported, actor John Cusack said that he was pepper-sprayed during an attack during protests taking place in Chicago. He posted on social media how it took place while he was trying to film what was happening.
Actor Kendrick Sampson and singer Halsey have also reported encounters of their own in Chicago and Los Angeles. As of Sunday night, additional protests were taking place around the country, including one evolving in Spokane, Washington.