Not unusual since Kent State anyway.
I was at Kent State that day (5/4/70) - the entire campus had been fully warned by Gov James Rhodes that the Ohio National Guard were carrying "real" bullets. Everyone knew they were armed - I think nobody (20 year old students like me) could ever imagine they would start shooting.
Kent State was no accident. There wasn't a single accidental shot fired that day.
My brother was in the Ohio NG during the Hough riots in Cleveland in 1966. "They" did this same crap to them. They had to stand around with empty guns hoping no one realized it. He was scared poopless since there were some pretty well armed dudes running around and he was essentially there with a "shoot me, I'm unarmed" sign on his back. We can thank the late Mayor Carl B. Stokes for that one. He and his bro Louis were big time black racist 4$$holes. Now everything in the city is named after these losers, but the Dems think they were God.