Anger over recent police shootings in Anaheim turned violent Tuesday as protesters clashed with police in the neighborhood surrounding City Hall.
The violence started between 7 and 8 p.m at the intersection of Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway, with protesters throwing rocks and bottles at police.
A reporter witnessed one police officer being hit in the head with a bottle.
At one point protesters overwhelmed police and took control of the intersection amid chants of “Sí se puede,” Spanish for “Yes it’s possible.”
Police responded by forming a line, shooting pepper-spray pellets into the crowd and pushing it out of the intersection and into side streets.
The protests are in response to the police shooting death on July 21 of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz, who was apparently unarmed and fleeing on foot from officers.
Diaz, who was known in the neighborhood as “Stomper,” was chased into a neighborhood alley and shot in the buttocks, then the head, an unidentified girl who witnessed the killing from 20 ft. away told The Orange County Register.
Police officers shot another man to death on Sunday as the man, allegedly a gang member, fired at them, according to news reports.