Detective's gun drawn in Oakland

A plain-clothes Highway Patrol detective, who had been marching with anti-police demonstrators, aims his gun at protesters after some in the crowd identified him and his partner during an arrest in Oakland.

The city has seen nightly demonstrations in response to decisions by two grand juries not to charge white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson and New York City.

Chief Avery Browne, commander of the California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division, said two plainclothes detectives were surrounded by up to 50 demonstrators who ignored orders to back off, despite one of the officers first taking out his baton and identifying himself as police.

"This image stands out because it has been seen as a detective threatening protesters."
Noah Berger, Reuters Photographer

When I took this photograph I was documenting the fifth consecutive night of protests in Berkeley following a grand jury decision not to indict a police officer in Eric Garner’s death.

The crowd marched peacefully for several hours through the UC Berkeley campus, disrupting a lecture and eventually walking several miles to downtown Oakland. The feel of the group changed when it reached Broadway and 14th St., the centre for the Oakland protests. At this point, the situation became more volatile and some people began to break windows and loot a cell phone store.

This image stands out because it has been seen as a detective threatening protesters. However, the frame does not convey the preceding events, which may lead to a more nuanced interpretation. Before the officer brandished the gun, the crowd turned on the detectives. A colleague said that one of the detectives was struck in the head.

My main concern while covering the protests over the last month has been to work safely and look after my photography gear.

It was an intense experience to be so close to someone wielding a gun in an unpredictable situation. I was shaken afterward and didn’t sleep that night.