SPECIAL REPORT: Protesters injured by police last year are still healing from their wounds — but some never will.
Victims describe the lasting effects of broken bones, torn ligaments, scarred faces, and blindness suffered at the hands of officers.
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Rickia Young was driving to pick up a friend from a protest in Philadelphia in Oct. 2020 when officers broke her windows and dragged her from the car.
Young says she suffered torn ligaments, an injury to her back, and lacerations to her face.
She was never charged with a crime.
“They treated me like an animal,” Young says.
“I can barely play with my son. If I try to run, my back will hurt. I can barely do everyday things. I can’t even hold a baby for a long time because my arm will give out on me.”
22-year-old Dounya Zayer says she suffered four herniated discs, two pinched nerves, a sprained ligament in her back, and a concussion when an NYC officer allegedly shoved her to the pavement during a protest on May 29 in Brooklyn.
“He walked away from it, but he ruined my life”
On June 4, Martin Gugino, who is in his 70s, suffered a fractured skull and concussion after police in Buffalo pushed him to the ground at a demonstration.
A Buffalo grand jury dismissed charges against the officers earlier this year.
Randy Stewart alleged in a damages claim that a Los Angeles police officer shot him in the back of the head with a rubber bullet, causing a brain hemorrhage, tinnitus, speech and vision trouble, and more.
Marqus Martinez is still recovering after being hit with a sting ball grenade in his face on May 31 in California.
His mouth was split up to his nose; he also suffered a broken jaw and concussion, per a lawsuit.
“He’s got years worth of recovery in front of him,” a lawyer says.
30-year-old Shantania Love is permanently blind in one eye because of what she believes was a rubber bullet when police began firing at a Santa Rosa demonstration in May 2020.
Love says she suffers from depression and severe panic attacks as a result of her injury.
It took 23-year-old Abigail Rodas weeks to eat and talk again after a Los Angeles officer allegedly shot her with a rubber bullet last June.
Doctors stitched her mouth back together and inserted a permanent metal plate to repair her fractured jawbone.
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“My whole face was swollen. I wasn’t able to talk. I had to adjust with texting or a white board,” Rodas says.
The pain and side effects from medications made going to school impossible, so she dropped out.
Rodas is now working through her intense depression with a therapist.
Read more about the protesters who haven’t found healing more than a year after being injured by police.
nbcnews.to/3oCTxMQ
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