Protesters stand in front of the White House in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Debbie Truong / WAMU

Protests in D.C. over the killing of George Floyd continued in the early hours of Saturday morning with a tense standoff between protesters and police outside of the White House.

The crowd, which originally gathered on Friday evening at 14th and U streets, protested outside the White House earlier in the evening, then made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the U.S. Capitol, where organizers staged a vigil for lives lost to police violence. After that, some demonstrators walked out onto the I-395 / I-695 interchange, stopping traffic.

Around midnight, more protesters moved to the White House, where they knocked over and removed barricades and threw water at law enforcement.

Police wore shields and helmets, and tried to push protesters back and reerect barricades. Some reported that police used tear gas on protesters.

A handful of clashes broke out sporadically throughout the night. Some protesters shoved into police and officers shoved back. Protesters threw water bottles and tried to rip shields away from Secret Service members. An officer was heard shouting at protesters to stop throwing rocks, and images also circulated on social media of pieces of brick that were allegedly thrown.

The Secret Service said Saturday morning it made six arrests around Lafayette Park and along Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House during the demonstrations, and that multiple Secret Service officers were injured.

“Some of the demonstrators were violent, assaulting Secret Service officers and special agents with bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks, and other items,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Park Service also responded to the protests.

Shortly after 1 a.m., hundreds of people were gathered outside of the White House.

Demonstrators stood face to face with law enforcement after protesters pulled away metal barricades and placed them in a pile. They chanted curses at the president and law enforcement. One protester in the crowd managed to take a police shield and run toward the line of police in front of a barricade.

Debbie Truong / WAMU
Debbie Truong / WAMU
Debbie Truong / WAMU
Debbie Truong / WAMU
Law enforcement squared off with protesters until the early morning hours. Debbie Truong / WAMU
Debbie Truong / WAMU
Debbie Truong / WAMU

Bryan Thompson, 23, walked 30 minutes from his home in Navy Yard to attend the protest. He wore a face mask and stood a distance away from protesters clustered in front of the White House.

In the past, Thompson said he was too young to attend a protest or struggled to find transportation, but he said he felt he could not miss this protest.

“It gets to a point where enough is enough,” he said. “Something in me said I needed to go.”

Dominique Janifer, a 23-year-old who recently graduated from the University of Maryland, said she weighed the risk of leaving her home during a public health crisis but called the protest “an important part of history” that she did not want to miss.

Janifer, who tried to practice social distancing and wore a mask, said the demonstration may be perceived as violent or aggressive by some people. But she said the actions were driven by a desire to bring awareness to police brutality.

“They’re supposed to be protecting us and serving us but that’s not what’s happening,” Janifer said. “Every year, it’s something else. You just can’t escape it.”

At 3:25 a.m., police used what appeared to be tear gas to disperse the crowd, sending them running back into Lafayette Park.

This story has been updated with additional detail.

Check out DC protest coverage from the second, third, and fourth nights.

Filed Under: George Floyd, lafayette park, protest, the white house,