Police in Marine City, Michigan, are looking into an incident involving a group of content creators who allegedly record their interactions with businesses and post them online.

The group says they were exercising their First Amendment right, but a confrontation took a violent turn.

"I don't know if they will be here tomorrow, breaking my windows and hurting me," said co-owner of Zimmerman's Meat Market, Sarah Hoover.

Hoover and her father bought Zimmerman's Meat Market last year, a grocery store that has been in the small community of Marine City since the 1800s. Hoover told CBS News Detroit that she has received threats before from animal advocacy groups.

This time, she felt threatened in person when she saw people videoing inside her store.

"They are holding up their cameras against the window, and they are not saying anything," said Hoover.

She says she called 911 after the people made faces at her and would not leave.

"I said, 'Please send someone. I'm really freaking out.' By this time, they are moving all over the window,'" said Hoover.

But she says police never showed up.

The father and daughter duo claim a police officer was close by when the father says he was walking toward the officer and pelted by pepper spray that was being administered by a content creator filming them.

"That cop was facing us when he got pepper-sprayed and still didn't come until that second 911 call," said Hoover.

According to a statement from the Marine City Police Department, a verbal dispute led to the pepper spray being deployed. It's unclear if it was unprovoked or in self-defense.

While authorities are reviewing video evidence to figure out what happened, Hoover's father is out of the hospital and is recovering.

Hoover says police told her the group creates videos that they post online, allegedly to exercise their First Amendment right.

"It's like everyone is a YouTube special. I just wanted to feed my family and give my community good, safe food," said Hoover.

CBS News Detroit reached out to the person who posted the video and received the following statement:

"I believe the video speaks for itself. I was peacefully exercising my first amendment right to record in public and tour the downtown area of Marine City. I check out the local government buildings and see what kind of businesses are there and what they have available. At the end of our tour we came across Zimmerman's. 

"The lady inside came out to ask what we were doing and I told her we were making a video. She got an attitude, shut off all the lights inside and went to the back, and then came back out with a large man. He called the police from inside, and I can only assume they were trying to educate him over the phone. 

"He continued to get more irate and came out of the business and charging directly at me very aggressively. I repeated to get back several times and he didn't. At that point I feared for my safety and used a legal, non-deadly self-defense spray to stop the threat from advancing on me. It was never my intention to have an altercation, I just want to peacefully record in public without fear of harm, or somebody hindering those rights."