Looting and rioting broke out in Minneapolis on Thursday night after police fatally shot a man wanted on a gun possession charge.
The fatal shooting from law enforcement officers came just over a year after George Floyd died in police custody, a death that sparked protests across the U.S. in opposition to racial violence, with the effects still felt in Minneapolis.
In April, a jury in Minneapolis convicted former officer Derek Chauvin of Floyd’s murder, while a trial for the other officers at the scene of the May 2020 incident is pending. Chauvin is due to be sentenced on June 25, but the defense is pushing for a new trial.
On Thursday afternoon, members of a U.S. Marshals task force attempted to arrest a man who was wanted on a warrant for gun possession, according to a statement by a Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson sent to Reuters.
The spokesperson said that the suspect, “who was in a parked car, failed to comply and produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.”
The officers attempted to revive the suspect, but paramedics declared him dead at the scene. A woman who was in the car with the suspect at the time of the shooting suffered minor injuries after glass shattered.
The authorities have not yet named the victim, but social media users alleged that the man was 32-year-old Winston Boogie Smith, Jr., according to the Twitter account @CrimeWatchMpls.
No members of the Minneapolis Police Department, whose officers were involved in the death of Floyd, were a part of the task force that attempted the arrest on Thursday afternoon.
The investigation into the shooting will be led by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, according to Reuters.
On Thursday evening, a small protest broke out at Lake Street and Girard Avenue, the scene of the shooting, as a group of people stood behind police tape, while social media footage showed demonstrators crossing the barrier chanting: “All cops are b******s.”
Footage shared by independent journalist Rebecca Brannon later in the day showed footage of a fire burning in the middle of the street, as she claimed that it had been raging for 40 minutes without any police presence.
The protest grew as the night progressed, with demonstrators setting fire to a dumpster and footage on social media showing officers deploying tear gas at the large crowd of people gathered at the intersection.
Following the police intervention, looting and rioting broke out at the intersection, as footage shared to social media by Brannon showed the window of a nearby CVS shattered, as she claimed that protesters looted the store.
Footage also showed that a T-Mobile store was broken into, while officers arrested protesters at the intersection as they surrounded the demonstrators.
Other footage showed a heavy police presence at the intersection, as a small group of protesters clashed with officers. The protest is ongoing.
A separate protest also took place on Thursday at the intersection where Floyd was killed in 2020, after crews reconnected 38th Street and Chicago Avenue by taking away vehicle barriers and portable toilets.
Despite earlier reports, the memorial to Floyd was not dismantled, as the intersection is only being prepared to allow traffic in the area again by the Agape Movement, which has been providing security to the memorial since 2020.
As soon as the crews finished taking away the barriers, protesters blocked the intersection, where they stood just minutes before as a man with a bullhorn shouted “No justice, no peace,” according to The Star Tribune.
Newsweek has contacted the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department for comment.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/minneapolis-protest-looting-rioting-shooting-george-floyd-1597486
[Disclaimer]
