A photo from The Strangers office taken in the early hours of June 8, the day the East Precinct was given over to demonstrators and turned into CHOP. Medics now attest that SPD targeted them while they were treating a critically wounded protester.
A photo from The Stranger's office taken in the early hours of June 8, the day the East Precinct was given over to demonstrators and turned into CHOP. Medics now attest that SPD targeted them this evening while they were treating a critically wounded protester. Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images

Thursday evening at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, a group of volunteer medics held a press conference on treating Aubreanna Inda, a demonstrator who "died three times" on June 8 after a law enforcement officer threw a flash-bang grenade that hit her in the chest. Inda ended up surviving multiple incidents of cardiac arrest, including three later that morning after medics transported her to the hospital.

"I'm working as an RN in Seattle, and I came [to the protests] expecting to see wound rash and eye rash and very minimal care," said Kim Dang, one of the three medics primarily responsible for the care and transportation of Inda that night. "But that night when [Inda] was in my hand, I was holding her hand when she just dropped, I feel... my heart break. I didn't expect to be in that situation at all when I came here. It was shocking to me."

Volunteer medic and Registered Nurse Kim Dang talks about treating Aubreanna Inda, who is believed to have nearly died after being struck by a flash-bang grenade thrown by SPD officers.
Volunteer medic and Registered Nurse Kim Dang talks about treating Aubreanna Inda, who nearly died after being struck by a flash-bang grenade thrown by SPD officers. CB

Dang went on to explain that another medic, who was on the phone with 9-1-1, was told that emergency services would not come to assist, presumably because they were inside a protest zone. The volunteer medics would have to physically transport Inda from the streets to a private vehicle and then to the hospital.

"My heart broke a second time," Dang explained. "At that moment, I didn't know if we could keep her alive."

Complicating care even further, members of that group of volunteer medics now claim they were targeted by SPD officers with flash-bangs as they were treating Inda. The team of medics, which included Dang and ICU Nurse Danielle Meehan, say they were clearly labeled with red crosses while providing care. "We all began to cough from the smoke from the gas and pepper bombs," said Meehan in a statement released Thursday.

While being gassed, the team says they had to create a stretcher for Inda and flee from SPD for multiple blocks while continuing to provide treatment. A volunteer emergency first responder named Raviv Hileman stated that several flash-bang grenades exploded directly behind him while he carried a critically injured Inda out of the triage area, causing visible bruising that lasted for over a week.

Several of the medics involved, including Meehan, claim this incident was a part of "a wider pattern of SPD intentionally targeting medics" with "rubber coated bullets, pepper spray, and other uses of force" as they were providing care to demonstrators, according to a statement. The medics have filed a complaint with the Office of Police Accountability.

"I don't want anyone to ever have that experience again," Dang said at the end of yesterday's presser. "Not on the streets of Seattle. Not here."

Inda can be seen getting hit with a flash-bang grenade in the second embedded tweet below.