Minneapolis protests turn destructive
No charges yet in George Floyd’s death; several investigations ongoing.
A wave of protests erupted across South Minneapolis overnight and into Thursday, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets as people set buildings on fire and looted stores days after George Floyd, an African American man, died in police custody.
Ash was falling Thursday morning at a shopping center on Lake Street, where a recently renovated Target had been defaced and looted. A nearly completed apartment development across the street had been burned to its concrete lower floor. Other commercial structures were also badly damaged.
Mayor Jacob Frey pleaded on Twitter for people to stay at home. “Please, please Minneapolis,” he wrote, “we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy. Please, help us keep the peace. Stay safe and evacuate the area.”
At a news conference Thursday,
he said the destructive protests were a reflection of the black community’s anger over 400 years of inequality.
“What we’ve seen over the last two days and the emotion-ridden conflict over the last night is the result of so much built up anger and sadness,” he said.
Frey declared an “all-out effort to restore peace and security” in the city, and said he has authorized a “unified command structure” to protect infrastructure and communities, particularly during the pandemic.
“In believing in our city, we must believe that we can be better than we have been,” the mayor said. “We must confront our shortcomings with both humility, as well as hope. We must restore the peace, so that we can do this hard work together.”
Floyd, 46, died Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes. A video of the arrest, in which he is heard pleading “I can’t breathe,” spread widely online.
“They executed my brother in broad daylight,” Philonise Floyd told CNN, breaking down in tears. “I am just tired of seeing black people dying.”
Floyd’s death also spurred protests in Memphis, Tennessee, and in Los Angeles, where law enforcement officials faced off with people blocking the 101 freeway downtown.
Four officers involved in the arrest were fired from Minneapolis police, and the FBI joined the investigation into the death of Floyd, a resident of St. Louis Park, Minnesota. On Wednesday, Frey called for the police officer who had pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck to be arrested and charged.
The Justice Department said in a statement Thursday that it had made a federal investigation into Floyd’s death a “top priority” and has assigned experienced prosecutors and investigators to the case. The department “urges calm as investigators methodically continue to gather facts,” the statement said.
A fatal shooting near the protests was under investigation.
Police said they were investigating a fatal shooting near a looted pawnshop in the area where the protests occurred.
In a news conference Thursday morning, a Minneapolis Police Department spokesman, John Elder, said two officers responded to a call near a shop, where they found the victim in grave condition on the sidewalk. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
“That is one of the theories we’re looking into,” he said, noting that the crime is still under investigation. “We want to make sure that we do in fact have all of the facts moving forward. We don’t want to cast aspersions on somebody if in fact they weren’t doing anything wrong.”
A suspect was taken into custody, Elder said, but he declined to provide the suspect’s identity, citing investigative protocol.
The violence came at the end of what had been a tense period.
Protesters began gathering Wednesday afternoon outside the 3rd Precinct headquarters, but by early evening, officers were trying to disperse the crowds using flash-bang grenades and tear gas.
Some residents of the area said Thursday that they believed people from outside the city had been responsible for a large portion of the fires and looting.
“This is just painful,” said Cynthia Montana, 57. “I don’t think the people who did the looting and all this destruction are the same as the peaceful protesters that have been at Cup Foods,” where Floyd was arrested Monday.
“I’m a protester,” Montana said. “It was so peaceful over there.”
Floyd’s family called for murder charges against the officers involved in his arrest.
Floyd’s death — and the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African American man who was chased and fatally shot by two white men in Georgia — has prompted comparisons to other killings of black Americans, including Eric Garner and Michael Brown.