Man Hit By Detroit Police Cruiser During Protest Speaks Out

(CBS DETROIT) - This is the video that picked up steam online.

A police cruiser plowing into a crowd Sunday night during a protest in southwest Detroit.

The video shared thousands of times prompted a response from the city's top cop who says the clip doesn't tell the whole story. 

"Several members of the protest group, 25-30 who was exhibiting violent behavior jumped on the hood of the car and you can see in the one video that was social media that the police car was slowly moving trying to get through," said Chief James Craig.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig made the announcement Monday during a press conference at the public safety headquarters. He says he received a tip saying that a group of agitators was plotting to provoke the police. 

Chief Craig says protesters busted the back window of the cruiser and that's when the officer behind the wheel picked up speed. 

"It was very loud. They were not certain that they were not being fired upon," said Craig.

 But Jae Bass told CW50 he was there Sunday night and that's not quite the way he saw it. 

"That excuse is completely false because we have multiple videos that show that there was nothing like that going on. He says that a window was smashed out but we have videos of the car driving away with the window intact. So what was it? Did they get scared because the window bust out like you said? No, because the video shows that wasn't true,"  said Detroit Will Breathe Organizer Jae Bass.

Craig says protesters were being redirected off of Vernor due to high traffic on the street and rerouted to take Dix.

DPD says that's when the protest went from peaceful to panic.

"If you're getting an SUV pressed against your knees and you feel your knees coming down, buckling, would you rather be under the SUV or would you rather be on top of the SUV? If you see your brother getting hit and you look to your left and you see your other brother falling, almost get hit by a tire, would you rather be under the tire or on top of the hood," said Bass.

Chief Craig says no one was injured Sunday night and the investigation is still in the early stages.

"So what's really going on? He's trying to make excuses and he's trying to defend people who are directly wrong and that doesn't show ownership. That doesn't show progression and that doesn't show reform. That show's that Chief Craig needs to step down and get somebody else who knows how to do the job and knows how to police his police because he doesn't know what he's doing," said Bass.

© 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.