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When Seattle police met a march against their union facility Sunday night, Officer Adam Fowler says the first thing he noted was how outnumbered they were.

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鈥淎s soon as we saw the numbers of people that they had, I realized that we didn’t have as many officers as they had people, and they outnumber us by quite a bit, and they’re very loud and very vocal, yelling all kinds of different things. And as soon as they encountered us it got pretty scary because they started launching fireworks at us,鈥� Fowler said.

鈥淲hen you’re in a situation like that you just don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what their plan is. You just kind of have to react to what their decisions are,鈥� he added.

Fowler is one of a half dozen officers SPD says were injured during the clash with a crowd of between 150 and 200 people Sunday night, who were holding an anti-police union rally, marching to the Seattle Police Officers Guild鈥檚 offices in SoDo.

Fowler, a married father with his second child on the way, was hospitalized after what was eventually declared a riot due an explosion from a firework that hit him in the head. He said almost as soon as the crowd arrived, it was clear what their intentions were.

鈥淭hey got there and within a minute or two someone had launched a mortar firework, trying to break into a police car and essentially tried to burn a police car to the ground like they have in the past,鈥� he explained.

That鈥檚 when a dispersal order was given. Fowler says they were able to move the crowd down 4th Avenue to the other side of the SPOG office, where more fireworks were being thrown at them by some demonstrators.

鈥淎nd these aren’t tiny fireworks, they鈥檙e not firecrackers — these are commercial grade mortars. These are things that should be launched up hundreds of feet in the air in a safe place to be detonated so they can put on a firework display. These aren’t meant for weapons,鈥� Fowler said.

First, he says one was thrown behind him, hitting him on the back. Then when he went back toward his patrol bicycle, another one went off.

鈥淭he only thing I could see was a bright flash and then a loud bang in what felt like a hammer hitting me in the face, and that’s when I got hit. I lost my vision momentarily for probably anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute, and I couldn’t see, it was just blurry in my left eye — my first initial thought was I’m going to lose my left eye — that was pretty scary,鈥� he said, clearly still rattled from the experience.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fresh. I’ve been in a lot of these protests, but I haven’t been hit where I might seriously lose part of my body. Something might affect my ability to do my job, to take care of my family, and that’s really hard,鈥� he explained.

Fowler says fortunately his vision came back and he managed to collect himself.

鈥淚 felt blood on my face, my face was really swollen, a little bit bigger than a golf ball on the side of my head,鈥� Fowler added.

He was treated at the scene and transported to Harborview, fearing he may lose the eye, but doctors determined there was no permanent damage.

Fowler says morale among the SPD is low. Officers who feel they鈥檝e worked hard to lead the nation on police reform and work through and sustain a consent decree — something only a handful of departments have done 鈥� are now being treated as if they were the worst department in the country.

鈥淎nd a lot of people feel the same way that I feel: very, very frustrated,” he explained. “People want to be appreciated. I came into this department five years ago from a different department knowing that we were in a consent decree, knowing that we wanted reform and a different type of police force, and I knew that coming here, and that’s something that all of us strive for.”

鈥淭he city council made the rules and we’ve said, just make the rules and we’ll follow those rules, and we have, and it’s just not enough — we don’t know what it is they want,鈥� Fowler added.

Asked what his message to rioters would be, Fowler was first quick to stress that Black Lives Matter protesters — including those in the Every Day March that push to defund the SPD and have shown up at councilmember homes — are peaceful, and have managed to keep most violent demonstrators out of their events.

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鈥淭hose protesters are different from what we’re dealing with every night, those people are very violent, very destructive. They want to harm us, harm businesses, harm things in Seattle, and then quickly try to turn the story on us like we have created something bad when they’re going out and seeking us out every night and trying to cause these issues,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t’s not acceptable anymore. We need to have follow through we are going out and trying to do the best that we possibly can and we need to hold these people accountable for going out and doing the things that they’re doing, because it’s not going to get better if they’re not held accountable,鈥� Fowler said.

Fowler says these are tough times, but he wants to stick it out and invest in the Seattle Police Department.

鈥淚 don’t like walking away from stuff,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don’t feel defeated to the point where I’m going to quit. I feel alone. I feel sad and frustrated with how the people around me have been treated, how I’ve been treated, and to the point where you’re getting physically assaulted to where it might physically change your life forever, and that can be defeating, but me and my wife, we take it day by day, we talk about it. We do get our frustrations out, and you just move forward.”

Those who were marching in Sunday鈥檚 riot claim the SPD were the aggressors, and have edited video circulating on social media purporting to prove brutality on several fronts, including pushing a legal observer. Observers are identified by wearing green hats, there to watch and ensure a protester鈥檚 right to assemble isn鈥檛 interfered with. Observers are specifically protected from police under a court order, along with journalists, medics, and others.

from local activist and musician Spekulation has nearly 1,000 retweets and more than 1,500 likes, and points to various assaults and arrests while . He describes it as edited propaganda to fit an SPD narrative. was made about the latest video from SPOG Wednesday afternoon.