Thread by @ShellyBradbury

I'm back at the Capitol for tonight's George Floyd protest in Denver, working with @EliseSchmelzer. A sizeable crowd has gathered here. I'll keep this thread going all night.

Looks like the crowd is about to start marching.

Marching and chanting are underway

As it turns out, just a short march to Civic Center Park for now.

Back on the move!

Headed toward 16th Street Mall

Very light police presence right now, at least visibly

Crowd pauses at Welton and 21st. The march stretches out of sight.

Marching again

Arapahoe St and 26th Street "Change starts here."

Protester walk by workers putting up plywood on the windows of a Patagonia store.

Crowd passes balconies full of people and shouts "Walk with us!" And "Out of your homes, into the streets."

Crowd fills Blake Street from 24th to Broadway and curves around the corner

The organizers remind everyone that this protest is peaceful. And it has been so far today.

Although this is peaceful, officers in riot gear are blocking some areas and intersections along the march route. They are staying back.

A second group of marchers is joining the first march

Pausing at 16th Street Mall and Wynkoop. Organizers ask people to go home tonight before the 9 p.m. curfew and thank everyone for continuing to show up. It's a large crowd.

The protesters are headed slowly back toward the Capitol

Approaching the Capitol now

"This is a peaceful protest!"

The march returns to a large crowd of protesters at the Capitol who now join

The crowd has filled Civic Center Park #DenverProtest

There are thousands here

The citywide curfew alert just hit people's cell phones, causing shouts of "Fuck your curfew!"

Crowd showing few signs of leaving as the 9 p.m. curfew approaches. But also officers are keeping distance for now.

Fireworks shooting off. No close police. Maybe 1,000 here now, smaller than the earlier march.

These folks have blocked this intersection, sitting between protesters and police cars a block away

The large goup is on the move

Marchers have stopped for nine minutes of silence in honor of George Floyd.

More marching

"Fuck your curfew, we want justice."

Broadway and 17th

March is back at the Capitol

It's calm right now

Ok spoke too soon, a loud bang caused a brief panic and small stampede

Alright just spoke to two witnesses who said they saw a man fire three shots in the air. They ran, no one was hurt. I heard the bang but did not know what it was.

It is calm here now.

Kaelah Esposito, 22, said she saw a man point a gun in the air and fire three times. "We saw the fire go off," she said. The man ran after firing, she said. Another woman with her, Madison Hill-Christensen said she saw the same thing.

Here is the scene now, folks holding their phones in the air

Moment of silence

I called Denver police to ask if they received any reports of shots fired and did not reach anyone.

Folks are just milling about here, still a large crowd

Ok now police confirm they did receive a report of shots fired in this area. PIO Tyrone Campbell says police are looking into it, no reports of injuries

Speeches happening on the Capitol steps. Sorry it's hard to see, the city's lights are shut off

Some fireworks now, crowd is dwindling from earlier but there arw still a couple hundred folks out I'd guess

Speakers talking about wrapping it up

Most of the remaining crowd looks to be heading home

Most protesters urging folks to go home, others shouting, "No, it's not over!" "Are you scared of tear gas?"

I am headed home. Police are still keeping their distance and there maybe 100-200 people still at the Capitol, just milling. We'll see if the night eventually ends with tear gas, but for now all is calm.

Here's how it ended last night