A New York Police Department official appeared to get pepper-sprayed in the face with his own cannister of the irrritant in the middle of a scuffle during a protest against Israel's war in Gaza on the Manhattan Bridge.
Assistant Deupty James McCarthy can be seen on video amid the crowd Saturday with a small canister in his hand that he appears to look directly at, then suddenly throws back his head amid a throng of protesters being corralled before police officers are dousing his face with water.
A Getty image of the scene by photographer Alex Kent shows McCarthy being "assisted after being affected by a chemical irritant." Kent added on X that "video of the incident appears to show McCarthy deploy his pepper spray — possibly injuring himself.
The NYPD told CBS News that "someone" deployed pepper-spray on McCarthy without providing an identity.
It was not publicly revealed if McCarthy suffered any serious injury.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated on the bridge ahead of the 76th anniversary of Nakba — when more than half of the Palestinian population was displaced during the 1948 establishment of Israel.