Photographer Paul Ahmann Recounts Assault During Recent Louisville Protests in Moving Interview
On May 29, WLKY chief photographer Paul Ahmann was covering protests in downtown Louisville against the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd by police officers. He was assaulted by rioters and knocked unconscious. In an exclusive interview, he recounts what happened.
I was with reporter Deni Kampner. We’ve been working together since COVID-19 started. Our crews were split up to limit exposure, so she and I have been joined at the hip for 11 weeks. We realized early on that this night was going to be different than the night before. Our security guys and I had a plan to constantly maneuver to stay safe. We always kept a building at our back so that nobody could come up behind us. We tried to stay in areas where there wasn’t violence, but in order to do live stories—because that’s what we do—we needed to see what was going on. We did this for several hours. Crowds were marching, they were chanting. And then, a little bit before dark, the police determined that it was an unlawful protest and started using tear gas and pepper balls to break up the crowd. People scattered to the surrounding blocks. Most were still protesting but some were being destructive. Between 10:30 and 11, we saw some anarchist types just breaking windows and setting fires. They were dressed differently. They were all in black; they had on tactical equipment. They were carrying big backpacks. We filmed them live, just smashing stuff.
All of a sudden, everybody kind of disappeared from that area so we started moving towards my car. We came upon a line of police and it was obvious that they were retreating. There were pockets of people everywhere, and the police were all kind of condensed, and the security guys and I agreed that we should probably start thinking about getting out. We maneuvered north from Jefferson Street, where the police had set up a perimeter, toward my car. We got tear-gassed a couple of times and we had to stop transmitting and go into a parking garage where there was fresh air and kind of clear our heads and get the tear gas off our faces. My car was about a block away, so we said, OK, we’re good, we can breathe, we can see, let’s head for the car. We go around the corner and there’s this huge crowd surrounding the car. I couldn’t even see it. So we continued north into another park, just to not be in the middle of this mob.
Deni and I did another live shot reporting on this huge crowd breaking windows and stuff. Then we realized it was our car they were smashing. You could see our car just getting demolished on live television. That was surreal. It was just very difficult for me to see that. I’m the fleet manager at WLKY and I’m also responsible for our equipment and that’s been my role for probably 15 or more years. It’s been my job to take care of our gear.
We moved a little closer so we could see better. We were behind some trees and some park benches and the crowd was about a half a block away. Then a gas canister came in and they cleared off and I thought, I’ve got about five seconds. I can get there. There’s a couple of things I can grab and we’ll get out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get everything, but the windows were smashed out and I thought I could reach in and just grab two things and go.
I got to the car and there’s a Molotov cocktail sitting on the backseat, barely burning. So I reached in, grabbed it and threw it on the ground. And then some dude ran up to me and tried to grab my camera. I’m struggling with him, trying not to let go of the camera, and our security guy came up and pushed him off. And at that point it’s lights out for me.
[Ahaman was punched in the jaw by one of the rioters and fell to the ground unconscious. Videos circulating on social media show him surrounded by jeering bystanders filming him with their phones. “I’ve watched a couple of the videos, but only once,” he says. “My wife has watched them a lot and she is horrified.”]
I have no memory of anything after that. I had no idea that I was on the ground, being surrounded. Our security guy, and a couple of protesters and a good Samaritan, who was just driving through, surrounded me and pushed the angry people off. And then they got me to safety and went back to get as much of the equipment from the car as they could, which was a lot, probably $100,000 worth of equipment. They went back and got all that stuff. And that is totally amazing. They were just people who said, we’re not interested in destroying things. And they stepped in. They helped us. That’s an incredible thing. Lucky for me, because we were outnumbered, obviously, and the whole thing just happened so fast.
In one of the videos, you can see somebody come up behind me and just slam me right in the jaw. The next thing I remember, I am sitting on a retaining wall at a hotel three blocks away. Deni’s there, the security guys are there, some of my equipment is there. And there are a couple of men wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts standing there with us, and some other guy, I had no idea who he was. And then I’m in the ambulance to the hospital. The EMTs are all wearing riot gear and I’m like, Oh my God, why are you wearing helmets. It was surreal.
I’ve been at WLKY for 28 years. I’ve been a photographer longer than that. I’ve been around. I’ve seen a lot of things. I won’t ever again say I’ve seen it all, because I’ve never experienced anything like this. I mean, riots and breaking windows and tear gas into crowds? When you see that on TV you just know it’s in a different country. But it was happening right in front of us and I just could not believe what I was seeing, and that I was there, reporting on it, you know? Doing my regular job. Before this virus, I parked in front of that courthouse and went to court hearings every day for years.
My jaw hurt for a few days, but I don’t really have any other injuries. Deni and I talked over the weekend and we just decided we needed to get back to work. We needed to get back in, do our jobs. Because I’m capable, and it’s better than sitting around at home watching videos on Twitter. So we went back to work.
— as told to Mike Steele
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