As they tried to leave, American officials said, all three soldiers were "pulled, punched, kicked and spat upon by demonstrators".
By 9 45 a.m., vehicles used to carry American officials under escort in and out of the palace compound were being set upon by demonstrators who pounded the vehicles with their hands and shoes as crowds swarmed the gate.
Mr. Batebi, busy making his senior thesis film about drug addiction, stumbled upon the demonstrators and joined in.
Within minutes, residents said, enraged crowds who had kept their distance set upon the demonstrators' vehicles, burning cars and a bus that helped bring them to the city.
The chief of the security police Nicholas's uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir tried to stop the march and then ordered his police to fire upon the demonstrators.
He immediately became a key public face of the Scaf, handling such controversial matters as the "virginity tests" inflicted by the military upon female demonstrators they had arrested.
"We're all heartbroken by the violence inflicted upon the demonstrators, but also tremendously proud of their non-violent presence in the streets demanding justice".
Soldiers were told to fire upon unarmed demonstrators, she believes, rather than the shooting being the result of troops disobeying orders as a previous major inquiry claimed.
Down 47th Street toward the United Nations, row upon row of demonstrators gave voice to their specific grudge.
I had once been stopped for 25 minutes at a traffic light on the evening of Sept. 7, 1978 as thousands upon thousands of demonstrators passed through the intersection.
The neighborhood, Mezze, skirts the hill on which the sprawling white presidential palace sits, and as row upon row of demonstrators walked along, wrapped tightly in heavy coats amid a snowstorm, more than a few expressed the wish that President Bashar al-Assad could hear them.
