COLUMBUS, Ohio — Northeast Ohio Media Group has demanded an apology and is considering legal action against Columbus police after a staff photographer was pepper-sprayed in the face during the revelry that followed Monday's Ohio State football championship win.

Photographer John Kuntz was blinded for two hours and suffered excruciating pain after being sprayed by an officer, according to a letter sent to the city's police chief Wednesday by NEOMG Vice President of Content Chris Quinn.

Kuntz was taking photos of students celebrating along North High Street near campus when police deployed pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"This is an unacceptable attack on an innocent journalist and the First Amendment," Quinn stated in the letter, sent to Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs and copied to Mayor Michael Coleman. "He posed no threat to the officer and obviously was performing his duties as a journalist, documenting the behavior of your officers and the students."

Quinn wrote that he is consulting with attorneys about seeking a criminal investigation; he and Kuntz are also discussing a possible civil lawsuit against the city.

In response to the letter, Coleman spokeswoman Tyneisha Harden noted that Jacobs has ordered an internal investigation into whether officers wrongly used pepper spray.

"We will look to this photographer for a testimony as the investigation unfolds," Harden stated in an email Thursday afternoon.

Phone calls to Columbus police seeking comment Thursday morning were not immediately returned.

A police spokeswoman had previously said that Jacobs was "completely pleased" with how officers acted and that the crowd-control agents were needed to keep people safe and allow fire trucks to reach dozens of small fires around the campus area.

However, Jacobs ordered the investigation after seeing photos of police pepper-spraying people she said were "apparently lawfully standing on sidewalks" and not violating the law.

Harden said Wednesday that Mayor Coleman saw the photos as well and was concerned about the police response.

Dozens of others in the crowd were also targeted by police, including a Columbus Dispatch photographer who recorded footage of an officer pepper-spraying directly into the lens of his camera.

A number of people said the spray and tear gas caused them to vomit or suffer from burning eyes and skin.

Officials said pepper spray was also used to break up crowds who broke into Ohio Stadium and gathered around Mirror Lake, a campus pond.

Here's the full letter: