A Navy veteran who was pepper-sprayed and crushed by federal officers in viral movie claims he confirmed up to the Portland protest to talk — but ended up leaving with a damaged hand.

Portland resident Christopher David claimed he was encouraged to head downtown to test out the protests — which have been raging for at minimum 51 consecutive nights — following seeing information studies of the violent clashes involving demonstrators and police, the Washington Post claimed.

The former member of the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps, 53, also wanted to inquire the federal brokers about the Constitution.

“Why are you not honoring your oath?” David yelled to the officers who had allegedly knocked some protesters to the ground as they rushed a line, he recalled to the newspaper. “Why are you not honoring your oath to the Structure?”

Just one officer then struck David regularly with a baton right before another federal law enforcement agent appeared to fuel him specifically in the deal with, according to footage posted to Twitter viewed much more than 9 million instances as of early Monday.

David, clad in a Navy sweatshirt, then turned absent though flipping the center finger, video clip exhibits. He discovered a close by medic in advance of going to a clinic, exactly where he was instructed his right hand was damaged in two places, the Washington Publish noted.

David stated he imagined his Navy sweatshirt would tone down any potential standoff with the brokers, he explained to The Oregonian.

“I thought the garments would be a defend,” he reported. “Turns out it had zero outcome. They didn’t treatment.”

The 6-foot-2, 280-pound previous wrestler claimed he was not intimidated during the heated incident with the federal agents, who “seemed fearful,” he claimed.

“The movie will make me glance even even larger than I am,” David informed The Oregonian. “Those officers were being little … They had no practices, just seemed like a gang.”

But David, a laboratory scientist at the Portland Veterans Affairs Health care Heart, pushed back on individuals on social media who have dubbed him “The Mountain” for standing tall during the onslaught.

“It’s just us standard individuals out there,” he explained to the Washington Write-up. “There were a complete group of pregnant moms standing out there linking arms and they received gassed. You listen to folks like [President] Trump say it is just a bunch of wacko fringe people today in liberal metropolitan areas who are out there, but no way. We’re all just standard people today who think what is going on is mistaken.”