A class action lawsuit has accused Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and other North Dakota law enforcement agencies of using excessive force during a Dakota Access pipeline protest where a Bronx woman nearly lost her arm.

The National Lawyers Guild claims at least nine plaintiffs suffered from injuries, such as seizures, facial burns, broken bones, bruising and eye damage during a violent clash last week. And more risked hypothermia when police blasted protesters with a water cannon during the Backwater Bridge melee on Nov. 20.

Last week’s clash sparked an injunction request filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Bismarck demanding law enforcement stop using excessive force tactics, such as sound cannons, tear gas grenades and rubber bullets, for crowd control near the protest encampment. The guild claims at least 200 protesters were hurt in the assault.

Protesters have staked out the Energy Transfer Partners construction project since August. The company is building a 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline spanning four states, including the Standing Rock Sioux tribal lands in North Dakota.

The tribe fears the pipeline will contaminate their drinking water and desecrate ancestral burial grounds.

Meanwhile, the Water Protector Legal Collective is seeking a temporary restraining order against police pending the injunction and a state order to evacuate their camp ahead of a winter storm warning.

The case is pending a federal judge’s approval for class action status.

Sophia Wilansky, 21, nearly lost her arm during the Dakota Access pipeline protests. (Facebook)

“The civil rights violations that night were deliberate and punitive,” said California-based attorney Rachel Lederman in a statement. “It is only a matter of luck that no one has been killed. This must stop.”

The lawsuit details some of the most egregious injuries, including the grenade blast that sent NYC activist Sophia Wilansky to a Minneapolis hospital with a mangled left arm.

The Bronx native is named in the lawsuit but is not listed as one of the plaintiffs.

The 21-year-old remains hospitalized “in excruciating pain all day long,” her father Wayne Wilansky told the Daily News on Monday night.

“She still has the arm attached to her body,” he said.

Wilansky is supportive of the suit and says he submitted an affidavit on his daughter’s behalf.

A protester gets warm by a fire during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline. (STEPHANIE KEITH/REUTERS)

“Obviously they should stop throwing grenades and using water cannons,” Wilansky said. “It’s insane.”

He expects Sophia to return to New York within 10 days, but his avid protester daughter will have to rethink environmental advocacy while undergoing nearly two dozen surgeries for the next two years.

“Physically, she’s not going to be susceptible to any more trauma,” Wilansky said. “Any bang, and she could lose that arm.”

Another protester recalled being downed by a tear gas canister.

Navajo Nation member Vanessa Dundon suffered from a detached retina and temporarily blindness in the explosion and was then struck by a rubber bullet as she tried fleeing the front lines, according to documents.

She was carried away by two demonstrators who heard her cry out for help.

A horse gallops through a confrontation between police and protesters during a protest. (STEPHANIE KEITH/REUTERS)

“Her eye was bleeding so much that she could not see, and she was worried her eyeball had been dislodged from its socket,” the lawsuit reads.

A doctor in Minneapolis told Dundon she had a cut on her eyeball and advised her not to return to Arizona fearing the elevation and pressure change would cause further harm.

“The doctor said the trauma to her eye will likely affect her vision for the rest of her life,” the lawsuit continued.

Protester Jade Kalikolehuaokalni Wool described the water cannon that threw her to the ground on the bridge along Highway 1086.

She recalled police dousing protesters with freezing water, even those injured and crawling on the ground, for at least an hour.

“When she got hit, the force of the torrent of water pushed her backward and she was completely soaked by the water cannon, even her boots were filled,” court documents show.

The lawsuit lists Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier as one of the defendants, claiming excessive force. (James MacPherson/AP)

Documents also state a grenade detonated in front of her and burned her face.

A tear gas canister also struck plaintiff Mariah Bruce in the genitals.

Sheriff Kirchmeier defended the use of force used that night, even the water cannon that soaked protesters during sub-freezing temperatures, going as far to describe the chaos as an “ongoing riot.”

He told the Bismarck Tribune the tactics described in the lawsuit are for police protection.

“When we’re put in the position of protected areas being overrun by numbers of people, these are lawful tools to quell the advancement. These are standing orders,” he told the newspaper.

Kirchmeier added that he has not been served notice of the 35-page lawsuit as of Monday evening.

Mandan police Chief Jason Ziegler and Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser are also named in the lawsuit as defendants.

The mine resistant armored vehicle that lodged the water cannon belongs to Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office.

For more information, please visit the source link below.