Pipeline protester reportedly severely injured

Minneapolis, Minn. (KARE) — Conflicting reports have arisen on Tuesday after a Dakota Access Pipeline protester was severely injured and had to be airlifted to a Minneapolis, Minnesota hospital.

Sophia Wilansky’s father claims that her arm was nearly severed by a concussion grenade thrown by police.

“Even though she’s lying there with her arm pretty much blown off she’s focused on the fact that it’s not about her, it’s about what we’re doing to our country and what we’re doing to our native people,” Wayne Wilansky said.

Authorities deny that any grenades have been used on protesters.

Authorities say two men and a woman were found at the explosion site using a barricade of plywood wrapped in a blue tarp to hide their activity under and around a burned vehicle on the north side of the Backwater Bridge.

Authorities say after repeated orders from law enforcement to come out from behind the barricade, and attempts to force them out with less than lethal direct impact of bean bags and sponge rounds, officers noticed subjects approach the area where one of them rolled multiple metallic cylinder objects toward the subjects positioned under or around the burned vehicle.

After the cylinders were rolled near the burned vehicle, an explosion, witnessed by law enforcement, occurred and several protestors ran to the area, pulled a female from under the burned vehicle, and fled the scene.