American rapper Dave East pepper-sprayed by Montreal police after concert

Christcella Nicholas thought she would have the night of her life photographing Dave East's Montreal show Monday night.

But it ended with her watching the artist she admires kneeling on the sidewalk after police pepper-sprayed a crowd of people outside Le Rouge Bar on Prince Arthur Street.

"It was supposed to be fun," she said.

"People go to these events to release, to have fun, and it's culture.… It turned out to be traumatizing."

Videos of people, including East, being pepper-sprayed outside the venue started circulating online within hours.

Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers received a tip that someone had a firearm inside the venue the night of the show.

Brabant said officers found an unloaded gun and a bullet near the stage and arrested a 24-year-old man, who has not been identified by police, but he was not the concert's headliner, Dave East, who is 35.

Police shut down the event and searched everyone in the venue before letting them leave.

In an interview with CBC News Tuesday evening, Brabant said a crowd formed around officers, leading them to feel "scared." Outside the venue, "people were too close to the police officers."

He said the police pepper-sprayed the crowd "to get them to spread out."

"We're talking about 30 people outside a bar, some were under the influence so we didn't know what the reaction would be from them," said Brabant.

In videos captured of the incident, the crowd appears smaller.

When asked if the use of pepper spray fell in line with protocol, Brabant abruptly ended the interview.

Nicholas says she witnessed the pepper-spraying from her parked car, after being searched by police. She could see East in the crowd, on his knees.

Nicholas says concert-goers were intimidated and confused by the police presence, as officers were on-site long before East took the stage. She said the mood had already shifted and the atmosphere felt tense.

"We couldn't leave certain exits, we all had to line up," she said.

"Right away they frisked us all, for what reason I do not know," said Nicholas. "It would have been nice to know why their presence was needed as well, just so we can feel a little bit better."

Brabant insists that police told everyone what was going on.

Nicholas said police never tried to de-escalate the situation, and she wishes the situation had been handled differently. She said people were met with hostility when they asked police what was happening. 

"I was seeing them be aggressive with their presence instead of being helpful," she said.

"If they just let us know that they were there for our safety … it would have been different."

Five more people between the ages of 16 and 34 were arrested for assaulting an officer and interfering with the work of a police officer.

CBC reached out to Bar Le Rouge and East's promoters but did not get a response.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.