A transit police officer pepper-sprayed a crowd attending a "Black Lives Matter" conference after they protested the arrest of an inebriated 14-year-old in Cleveland, Ohio, according to The Guardian.

The incident took place near Cleveland State University located in downtown Cleveland, where the first police-brutality-inspired "Black Lives Matter" conference was being held. The conference was attended by more than 1,200 participants, who spent the weekend organizing and discussing various social justice issues, The Huffington Post reported.

The Rapid Transit Authority released a statement saying officers "peacefully removed" an intoxicated 14-year-old from a bus when the crowd started to surround the police car in which the teen was being held and prevented the car from leaving, prompting a Transit police officer to use the pepper spray on the crowd in an attempt to push them back. The transit police confirmed that the teenager was later released to his mother and the incident is currently under investigation.

The Transit Authority did not release the name of the officer involved in the incident and the agency's officers are not affiliated with the city's police department. Videos of the incident quickly went viral on social media, sparking outrage among a community that is already concerned about police brutality following the deaths of Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner.

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