Powerful US protest photo shows armed police with rubber bullet gun near little girl

A police officer was pictured raising a rubber bullet gun near a man carrying his little girl on his shoulders during George Floyd protests.

Taken by photographer Richard Grant at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, on Sunday, the powerful image has been shared thousands of times.

It portrays the tension found across the United States at the moment as Americans have taken to the streets to share their outrage at the death of an unarmed black man, after a white cop knelt on his neck for several minutes.

A number of policemen wearing protective riot masks stand on a street corner, with several sporting the firearms that have been used to try and quell protests in the last week.

An unidentified father stands close to the police with his daughter, who appears to be wearing a superhero costume, with photographers nearby.

However, after receiving backlash that a cropped version of the picture was misleading, Mr Grant has taken to social media to defend it.

"First thing the photo is not fake," he wrote on Twitter. "It is not Photoshopped. What I saw through the viewfinder is what is here."

He then shared the full image and an alternate view which show the officer is not - as first impressions might suggest - pointing the weapon point blank at the pair.

Instead, he appears to have raised the gun in response to something happening off camera behind them, though still within feet of the child.

Mr Grant captioned the picture: "A man stands with his child in front of the police during demonstrations [on] Sunday in downtown Long Beach.

"Police pointed rubber bullet guns to get crowds to back away.”

In an Instagram post, the photographer added: "This man stood with his child most of the time until the police started using concussive grenades but they never fired on him but did occasionally pointed their rubber bullet guns towards him."