Protests of around 200 people gathering at the Brooklyn Center Police Department following a fatal police shooting on Sunday. Officers held a line outside the department, with some officers positioned atop the building. Chemical agents and rubber bullets were used against the protesters, as a curfew was ordered by the mayor until 6 a.m. Monday. The local school superintendent moved the district to remote learning as a precaution.
Minnesota Department of Public Safety commissioner John Harrington said one group threw rocks and objects at the police department, while another group was seen at a mall where around 20 businesses were broken into.
Reports in Minneapolis of break-ins and shots fired prompted DPS to say National Guard will be working with state and local departments over the next two to three days.
Chief Tim Gannon of the Brooklyn Center Police Department said an officer had shot the man on Sunday afternoon after pulling his car over for a traffic violation and discovering that the driver had a warrant out for his arrest. As the police tried to detain the man, he stepped back into his car, at which point an officer shot him, Chief Gannon said.
The man’s car then traveled for several blocks and struck another vehicle, after which the police and medical workers pronounced him dead. Chief Gannon did not give any information on the officer who fired or say how severe the crash had been, though the passengers in the other car were not injured. The chief said he believed that officers’ body cameras had been turned on during the shooting.
The victim, identified by family as Daunte Wright, 20, was on the phone with his mother as he was being pulled over. His girlfriend was also in the car that had been gifted to him only two weeks prior.
The mother, Katie Wright: “He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror.”
Sources: New York Times, CNN