A protest is scheduled for Saturday to demand the public release of police bodycam tapes that show confrontations from an October demonstration in Graham, but some of the footage has already made its way to media outlets.
Police used pepper spray on people including children as they cleared the streets during a rally that protested the Confederate monument and encouraged citizens to vote.
The Graham Police Department and Alamance County Sheriff's Office missed a June deadline to release the tapes to a coalition of media outlets that had sued to get them.
Now some of the videos have been privately released to media outlets including the Carolina Public Press. The nonprofit news outlet reports that they got the Graham police footage from an elections volunteer who faced charges that were ultimately dropped.
They show a chaotic and confusing scene in the streets that includes calls for medical assistance.
Carolina Public Press says no Alamance County Sheriff videos were among those released. The request for additional videos by the coalition of media outlets is now on appeal.