American rapper Dave East was pepper-sprayed by Montreal police after a concert

Crissella Nicholas thought Monday night would be her night to photograph Dave East's Montreal show.

But it ended with him seeing the artist kneeling on the pavement after police pepper-sprayed a crowd outside Le Rouge bar on Prince Arthur Street.

“It was supposed to be fun,” he said.

“People go to these events to let loose, to have fun, and that's the culture. . . . It turned out to be horrible.”

Within hours, videos of people, including East, being pepper-sprayed outside the arena went viral.

Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers received a report of someone with a firearm the night of the show.

Brabant said officers found an unloaded gun and bullets near the stage and arrested a 24-year-old man, who was not identified by police but was not Dave East, 35, of the concert.

Police checked everyone at the scene before closing down the event and letting them leave.

Photographer Chrissella Nicholas witnessed police pepper spray Dave East on Monday night. (Paula Dayan-Perez)

In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday evening, Brabant said the crowd gathered around the officers and made them feel “terrified.” Outside the venue, “people were getting too close to police officers.”

He said the police sprayed the crowd with pepper spray “to disperse them”.

“We're talking about 30 people outside the bar, some of whom were affected, so we didn't know what their reaction would be,” Brabant said.

Videos taken during the event show a smaller crowd.

When asked if the use of pepper spray followed protocol, Brabant abruptly ended the interview.

Nicholas says he witnessed pepper spray from his parked car after police searched it. He saw East among the kneeling crowd.

According to Nicholas, concertgoers were scared and confused by the police presence, which happened long before East took the stage. According to him, the mood has changed and the atmosphere is tense.

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“We couldn't get out of certain exits, we all had to stand in line,” he said.

“They hit us all at once, I don't know why,” Nikolai said. “It would be nice to know why they need to be involved, so we can feel a little better.”

Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers received a report of someone with a firearm the night of the show. (Paula Dayan-Perez/CBC)

Brabant insists the police told everyone what was going on.

Nicholas said police never tried to downplay the situation and wished the situation had been handled differently. He said people were met with hostility when they asked the police what was going on.

“I saw them being aggressive instead of helping,” he said.

“If they had indicated that they were there for our safety … things would have been different.”

Five more people between the ages of 16 and 34 were arrested for assaulting an officer and obstructing the work of a police officer.

CBC reached out to the promoters of Bar Le Rouge and East but did not hear back.