Protesters and protectors say the shootings of drones are aimed at undermining reporting on #NoDAPL. Lauretta Prevost with Mirrors and Hammers Productions,www.mirrorsandhammers.com,
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Story Transcript
REGIS FERLAND: The FAA No Fly Zone was enacted today over the areas of our camp in the work zone for the DAPL workers. Their main purpose was for us, as media, no longer to fly their drones in the air to be able to gather information and report a good story.
DRONE TO BE WILD: I took the drone up to scout out what’s going on above the hill and all of a sudden they started shooting at it. I didn’t really think they were gonna shoot at it ‘til I brought it in for landing and one of the legs were shot off with the GPS wiring in it so it dislocated the GPS on it. Its still flyable, it can still fly but it just can’t take it far away and I just gotta see it with my eyes.
I taped it up so far but this here is pretty much where the bullet came straight through and knocked off these wirings that’s in here. So this is where the GPS wiring was at, so I have to get a new leg in. There were shots. I got them on footage when they started to shoot at the drone. And also they tried to throw rocks at the drone, too. I was pretty close. The only reason I’m getting pretty close is to see what they’re carrying. Trying to see what they’re loading up. What kind of guns they have, see if they have any dogs. Apparently there’s no dogs, dogs used to run up to these drones.
They didn’t want me to see what else they had so they ended up shooting at it. I was probably 15 feet above them, above the convoy. There’s 2 convoys. There’s one right up over the hill and there’s another one about another quarter of a mile down the pipeline. About 15 or 16 cars-vehicles, total. That’s only the one far away back. That didn’t include these ones up front. So all together I’m gonna say about 25 but I won’t find out til I go back and review the footage.
The last time I checked it was a felony to shoot down any drone, recreational or military. I’m a freelancer drone pilot and I’ve been here since day 1, recording all of this as it unfolds in the sky. I’m here getting the story for the half of my Standing Rock Sioux nation tribe.
MYRON DEWEY: The drone was 1,400 feet above and they just shot it down with a sniper. That is a felony to shoot down a drone. The drone was on tribal land. It was way above, way away from it.
[INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND]
DEWEY: They just shot another drone.
SPEAKER: How many people did you see?
DEWEY: I saw around 75.
FERLAND: Today, Myron with Digital Smokes Signals, has filed an injunction based on our efforts down here to set up camp under Eminent Domain. Stating that Eminent Domain not only covers land areas, water areas, but also air areas. So with the filing of the Eminent Domain for the air space, today, we’re making a stand against them stating that this is also our air space and it can’t just be shut down so that media can’t report the truth.
End
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