About 100 people gathered in front of the Venetian Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday to protest police brutality and the death of Tashii Farmer, who died in police custody on May 14.
According to Las Vegas Now, protesters locked arms across Las Vegas Boulevard and temporarily shut down the street. Fox 61 reports that a fight broke out when a bystander attempted to break up the rally.
Witnesses told KTNV that the confrontation happened between protesters and a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the scene and cleared the roadway, detaining several people including the man wearing the hat.
The protest was inspired by the death of Farmer, 40, who died after a Las Vegas police officer was caught on camera using a stun gun seven times as well as an unapproved choke hold to “subdue” him.
Police Officer Kenneth Lopera thought Farmer was trying to carjack a pickup truck with two people inside when he fired the stun gun in a series of bursts and used the unapproved choke hold at the Venetian Las Vegas resort and casino, Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said.
Officers have said that Farmer—who also goes by the name Tashii Brown—was sweating and looked panicked as he told police that people were chasing him.
Brown later died at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.
Lopera, 31, has been on the Las Vegas force for five years. Of course, since the incident, he has been put on paid leave pending departmental and district attorney reviews of the incident.
