Nicole Carroll

The Republic | azcentral.com

Reporter Jason Pohl worked his way to the front of the barricades at Second and Monroe streets.

Cydney Henderson and Medha Imam were livestreaming video at the same intersection.

Rob Schumacher was taking photos in front of the Herberger Theater.

President Donald Trump had just finished his downtown Phoenix rally Tuesday night.

Anti-Trump protesters and police faced one another across barricades near Second and Monroe, where peaceful protesters had been gathering all day.

More than a dozen Arizona Republic journalists were still nearby.

Then, in an instant, chaos.

Video shows water bottles being thrown at police. A lit object hit a police officer. Police also say people threw rocks.

Officers fired smoke, pepper spray, projectiles, then escalated to stun grenades or "flash bangs,” and tear gas.

As the crowd ran away from the scene, our journalists ran toward it.

Other Republic reporters and photographers, already in the middle, stayed put, photographing and recording, so the public could see exactly what was happening.

On Wednesday morning, I was reviewing a list of 17 Republic staffers who were caught up in the gas or spray and the aftermath — burning eyes, coughing, vomiting, burning skin — when an email popped in from "M Eliot." It read, in part:

It is refreshing to know that the most powerful politician in the world is not kowtowing to the backbiters you in the Fake News Media have become.

The battle lines have been drawn.

I wrote back, asking “M Eliot” for his her or full name, saying I might use the comments. Eliot declined. I sent another note, asking if we could talk. I wanted to hear him or her out — and also share some details of our coverage.

Protecting the First Amendment, protecting free speech, is at the core of what we do.

But our job also is to be the eyes and ears of our community, to see and share what's happening. For the public to have informed opinions, it must have information.

So here's what I would like everyone who wrote to me Wednesday, including Eliot, to know about what our team saw, and reported, Tuesday night.

Pohl started video recording and, at 8:36 p.m., captured someone throwing a water bottle that hit an officer. He also captured the lit object hitting the officer.

"Seconds later, the gas came out, the scene devolved, and people fled east and west,” Pohl told me later. “Some people in the crowd were immediately saying, ‘OK, time to go home.’ Others were becoming more confrontational.

"By the time the crowd dispersed to the west, near the parking garage, the burning started in my throat and nose. I had goggles on, so my eyes were fine, but it was clear it would only get worse."

Pohl recorded and shared a pivotal moment in the night's events.

Henderson and Imam are new to our staff. In fact, Imam is a summer intern. Watch their videos. The smoke is billowing. People are gagging. One woman falls on some steps (at 2:02) and is helped up and away from the smoke. Through it, Imam tries to report live, though she struggles to speak through the smoke.

“They stayed live for as long as they could stand the gas, then tried like hell to get back to the office,” said their editor, Louie Villalobos. “They made it to Van Buren between Third and Second streets before becoming overwhelmed by the gas that had at that point engulfed downtown Phoenix near our building."

Because Henderson and Imam stayed, more than 100,000 people were able to watch the scene unfold in real time on Facebook and Twitter.

Schumacher says he saw smoke trails coming from protesters near him and flying toward the officers.

“As parents with kids rushed away, we moved in,” he told me.

"I kept shooting until I couldn't see any longer. Coughing and gagging, I rushed my way up Second Street to the office to wash off and file. As we were filing, we heard the flash-bangs going off outside our building. So I went back to cover the action in front of our employee entrance."

He washed out his eyes — and went back out.

I heard plenty more stories like this.

Karina Bland got a face full of the pepper spray, but kept recording video. She ended up bringing a protester in distress in to our lobby. He was having trouble breathing.

Laura Gomez was standing in front of St. Mary's Basilica, on the northeast corner of Monroe and Third streets, when she saw “a thick yellow cloud emerging.” She focused on texting her notes and photos back to the newsroom. “The air around me was thin with that layer of tear gas,” she said. “The skin around my mouth and nose started to burn badly."

Photographer Michael Chow was at the Herberger. He was pretty nonplussed about getting tear-gassed. “Not the first time,” he told me later. “Probably not the last.” He just wanted to get more video uploaded.

I hope Eliot reaches out again. I'd love to have a conversation about our news coverage.

For us, there were not battle lines, just news to report.

We had live coverage of the president's rally inside the convention center.

We had a full staff covering events outside.

And then, when the time came, our professional reporters and photographers put themselves in harm’s way to let you see the events as they unfolded.

That's about as real as it gets.

Nicole Carroll is editor and vice president/news of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.