After tear gas canister smashed protester’s leg — big bills, long rehab but no regret

Humberto Gonzalez experienced some of the most painful moments of his life within a matter of hours last Saturday night.

He was about 10 feet from Kansas City police officers at a protest against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, when what he presumes was a tear gas canister slammed into his leg. He felt pressure on the right side of his calf and wasn’t sure how he ended up on the ground. His leg was “flopping” when he tried to stand.

As several protesters helped him to the hospital, Gonzalez worked to stabilize his leg. Others fumbled with a T-shirt and gauze to create a makeshift tourniquet and stop the bleeding below his knee. Rolling his jeans to treat the wounds revealed his tibia had broken through his skin, and he was bleeding profusely.

A week later, four screws and a rod hold his lower leg together. He’ll spend at least 16 weeks in recovery at a bottom floor bedroom in his friends’ home and doesn’t know what the future could hold.

Gonzalez, 36, left his last job as an event coordinator at the University of Missouri-Kansas City at the end of March. He served in the Marines from 2002 to 2008 and hasn’t been insured outside of the VA since then.

When protesters first tried to carry him to the hospital, Gonzalez said he insisted on going to the Kansas City VA Medical Center where his insurance would be accepted, but he was transferred to the University of Kansas Hospital because of the severity of his injuries.

It’s unclear what his medical bills could total so far, and in the meantime he’ll be checking in with doctors and hoping the wounds aren’t infected because of the way they were treated at the protest. Now, he’s navigating an already challenging job search environment while being essentially bed ridden and unable to work at in-person service-related jobs.

“Who knows how long that’s going to affect my employment status,” he said.

While Gonzalez was in the hospital, his friend Eddie Gartland created a GoFundMe that has raised over $21,000 to help pay for medical bills from his operation, three nights in the hospital and ongoing check-ups. UMKC student organizations and faculty have spread the fundraiser through social media, and Gonzalez said friends, family and acquaintances have reached out to offer meals, rides to appointments or time to talk.

Gonzalez said people he didn’t know well and strangers from across the country have donated to help him cover his expenses for the coming months. He’s been writing down names to start sending thank you notes soon.

‘Like storm troopers had shown up’

Gonzalez and his friends Gartland and Colin Blessinger spent about 10 hours at the protests Saturday. During the day, they saw families and protesters wearing shorts and sandals and police with minimal protections. When they returned from dinner and the sun had gone down, it was a different scene.

“It was like storm troopers had shown up,” said Gartland, 34. “It was a totally different experience.”

He said there were far more officers than before, and they now held shields and batons. Police began using tear gas on the crowd in cycles, and Gartland said it felt like “rinse and repeat” — police made a boundary, protesters reached it and police deployed tear gas to push them back again.

Eventually the chaos split the three friends up, which is when Gonzalez said the tear gas canister hit him. Elsewhere in the crowd, Blessinger, 37, said he felt like a hammer had hit the back of his head. He found Gartland in the crowd and removed his hat to find a quarter-sized hole gushing blood, which they believe was caused by a rubber bullet. Blessinger, a fellow former Marine, had his wounds treated at the VA.

Gonzalez said the compound fracture he suffered didn’t come from a hand-tossed tear gas canister. He thinks police used riot guns to propel tear gas canisters into the crowd Saturday rather than throwing and rolling all of them.

“The force to shatter and essentially break my leg and have the tibia protrude out the skin — that’s not hand thrown,” he said. “Those tear gas canisters don’t explode, they’re propelled. And I was at close distance, so I wonder about the safety range when they’re supposed to be shot out.”

Kansas City police said in an email Friday that tear gas is only deployed when crowds act disruptive by throwing water bottles, rocks or other items. Officers give warnings for several minutes before they use tear gas on the crowd, the department said.

“These injuries are terrible and unfortunate,” Kansas City Police spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina wrote in the email. “We never intend to cause harm to anyone when we respond to resistance, we do so with the intent to provide for the safety of the crowd.”

Gonzalez and Gartland said they didn’t hear police issue a warning before they deployed the tear gas. While they saw some water bottles thrown at officers, Gartland said police had far more protective gear than protesters, who were hit with higher level non-lethal weapons.

Looking ahead

Mayor Quinton Lucas voiced support on Twitter for 8 Can’t Wait, a national program launched Wednesday by Campaign Zero that aims to decrease police violence through practices and rules that local forces can implement.

Programs like this aren’t enough, Gartland said, to quell police brutality. He, Gonzalez and Blessinger want to see an overhaul of the police system with outside evaluations and civilian review boards to hold officers accountable.

Gartland and Blessinger have talked about returning to protests soon. As white men, Gartland said it’s important they use their voices and bodies to stand up for black lives. When one person in the hospital asked Gonzalez if his attendance was worth it, he didn’t need to think about his answer for long.

“I don’t regret it,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t regret my presence being there. I’m glad I’ll be able to walk again in 16 weeks, but I don’t regret being out there.”