Protesters set Minneapolis police station ablaze
MINNEAPOLIS (US) - A police station in Minneapolis has been set alight during a third night of protests over the death of an unarmed black man in custody on Monday.
A police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, 46, despite him saying he could not breathe.
President Donald Trump said “thugs” were dishonouring his memory and called on the National Guard to restore order.
Twitter accused Trump of glorifying violence in a post that said: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Floyd’s family have demanded that the four police officers implicated in his death face murder charges. Prosecutors have said they are still gathering evidence.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise, told CNN on Thursday: “I’m never gonna get my brother back,” he said. “We need justice.”
Speaking through tears, he said the officers who “executed my brother in broad daylight” must be arrested and that he was “tired of seeing black men die.”
The incident has added to longstanding anger over the police killings of black Americans, including the recent case of
Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
There have also been demonstrations in other US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix and Memphis. The last few days have seen buildings in Minneapolis burned to the ground or looted.
On Thursday, protesters gathered outside the police department’s 3rd Precinct, which is near where Floyd died and has been the epicentre of the unrest.
Officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse the crowd. But the cordon around the police station was eventually breached by protesters, who set fire to it and two other nearby buildings as the officers withdrew.
At a news conference yesterday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said there had been no choice but to evacuate the police station.
Frey called the rioting and looting “unacceptable,” but he added that he and everyone else recognised there was “a lot of pain and anger” in the city.