"I'm still sneezing a little bit," Tempe Councilman David Schapira said on the phone Wednesday as he talked about the protest that turned chaotic after President Donald Trump's rally in Phoenix on Tuesday.

He said that he and his wife were handing out water bottles to protesters, Trump supporters and law enforcement along Second and Third streets near Monroe when the first pepper ball was shot.

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"Next thing I knew I heard a pop," Schapira said, "then people started running."

Police arrested four people and said some anti-Trump protesters threw rocks and bottles, and officers responded with pepper balls, pepper spray and tear gas.

Some protesters said the police action was unprovoked.

From his vantage point, Schapira said he didn't see any rocks, gas canisters or water bottles thrown at officers. "Everything was peaceful."

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"I'm not sure if there was any provocation but I probably would've seen it," he said, referring to the area he was in.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, in a press conference late Tuesday, said she heard from officers that the first gas came from the protesters.

“They had their own gas they threw at police, not our gas,” she said.

"That is so far from any sense of reality," Schapira said, adding that he only saw protesters throw and kick canisters that police had deployed. "The tear gas was overkill."

Schapira said he didn't hear any warnings from police that pepper balls or tear gas were about to be deployed.

Williams said officers adequately warned protesters. Part of the warning involved police showing themselves in full riot gear. Williams described that presence as an “act of showing we will show force if we have to.”

"If they had made an announcement for people to disperse it wouldn't have gone that way," Schapira said.

A nearly two-story cloud of tear gas engulfed the councilman and his wife and limited their visibility to a few feet or so, he said.

"Almost my entire face was on fire," said Schapira, who took refuge in The Arizona Republic lobby before making his way to a "makeshift MASH unit" protesters created in Civic Space Park. He and his wife doused their faces with milk to counteract the chemicals.

Schapira said that at such events he would like to see law enforcement give warning if "something like that would happen."