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Man Who Lost Eye In May 31 Protest Sues City Of Mpls. For More Than $10M

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A protester who suffered a serious eye injury in the unrest following George Floyd's death has filed a lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis, including the police chief and multiple officers.

WCCO has previously reported on Soren Stevenson, who was at the front of a protest line at a ramp to southbound I-35W and at University Avenue on May 31. In the protest, a "non-lethal" round struck Stevenson's left eye.

"We were linking arms and just before that, we were saying 'hands up, don't shoot'," Stevenson recalled in the June 3 interview.

Now, in a lawsuit filed against the City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and multiple "John Doe" police officers, Stevenson says he suffered injuries as a result of unreasonable use of deadly force.

Stevenson says he was exercising his First Amendment rights when he was struck in the left eye with a "40 millimeter blunt-impact projectile" that ultimately resulted him losing the eye.

There were no warnings given to Stevenson, who was unarmed and displayed no aggression, the lawsuit said. The protest was also held well before the 8 p.m. curfew.

"These actions and inactions were more than immoral; they were inhuman," the lawsuit states.

MORE: Read the court document.

The lawsuit is seeking more than $5 million for injuries suffered and more than $5 million in punitive damages.

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