PEACEFUL PROTESTS/VIOLENT POLICE:

The photograph captures a police officer aiming a weapon at a woman. She is holding a purple phone. She has her hair in a top knot. She is wearing workout shorts.

The officer has just blasted her in the breast with a pepper ball. Smoke rises from her T-shirt. She clutches her breast.

In the background, officers are zip-tying two protesters facedown in the grass. Farther back, a protester holds up empty hands.

The scene unfolds along a highway access road on the western edge of downtown Dallas. Moments earlier, these protesters were walking across a grassy slope, moving away from shots they had heard coming from the highway, some 50 yards behind them, they say.

The image freezes time at 8:33 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, five days after the death of George Floyd. It captures the very dynamic that has driven millions of protesters to the streets across America: A white officer unleashing violence on a person of color.

Combined with other photographs and witness accounts, the image tells the story of how police stormed peaceful protesters who, in the end, were not prosecuted for anything. The chaos unfolded fast, lasting just under two minutes.

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