A man who lives in the Dupont neighborhood of Washington, DC, on Monday allowed a large group of protesters to come inside and spend the night at his townhouse to prevent them from being arrested for violating a 7 p.m. curfew.

Like cities across the country, the District has been roiled by protests turned violent in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.

An estimated 50 to 70 people were in the home and photos shared from inside show that people were crammed together. 

The local National Public Radio station, WAMU, reported on Rahul Dubey, who some have called a hero for harboring people who were violating the curfew:

“I heard ‘bang bang’ and a lot of thumping and pepper spray everywhere, my eyes started burning, people screaming, and a human tsunami coming down the street, of piles on top of people,” Dubey says. “There wasn’t even enough room to scatter. I flung open this door … I was like ‘come in, get in the house, get in the house.’”

Dubey says police were chasing after the demonstrators, and he had to pull some of them inside as they tripped and coughed from the pepper spray. People were splashing water and milk in each other’s eyes and pouring into his gated backyard, he says. “It was an hour and a half of pure mayhem,” he says.

As the hours wore on in the house, tensions eased a bit and protesters began chatting with one another and sharing stories about the night, expressing frustration at the actions of police, according to Dubey. Spread throughout all four levels of the home, they began calling lawyers and journalists on their cellphones. Most of them were strangers to one another, he says.

Dubey said he would be proud if his kids grew up to be like the people who hid in his home.

WAMU spoke to someone inside the home by phone who identified as a 22-year-old named Meka.

“I think everyone’s alright right now, but it took awhile for everyone to stop coughing,” Meka said. “Everyone was kind of on edge earlier, but we’ve been here for long enough that people are starting to relax.”

“Kishan Putta, a candidate running for a Ward 2 council seat in today’s election, delivered a pizza to the house, according to Dubey,” WAMU reported. “By the time the curfew lifted, strangers had coordinated efforts with the group to provide them safe rides home.”

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