Cops gotta cop, and that means keeping pesky journalists under control.

Tirado was 38 in May 2020 when she drove from Nashville, Tenn., to Minneapolis to cover the unrest unfolding after the murder of George Floyd. He died when a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes. The city became an epicenter of widespread demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality.

Tirado was covering the protests on the night of May 29 when police officers fired “nonlethal” foam plastic bullets into the crowd. One of them hit her in the eye — even though she was wearing protective goggles and press credentials.

“I was lining up a photo when I felt my face explode,” Tirado wrote in an op-ed for NBC News that June. “My goggles came off and my face was suddenly burning and leaking liquid, the gas mixing with the blood. I threw up my arms and started screaming, ‘Press, I’m press,’ although I’m not sure if anyone could hear me with my breathing apparatus and the general chaos around me.”

Tirado permanently lost vision in her left eye, which led to additional complications like dizziness and lack of depth perception.

The National Press Club said it had learned that Tirado also suffered a traumatic brain injury from the blow, and developed dementia as a result. —NPR