Community members and activists demanded Monday that Minneapolis police identify the officer who shot a black man suspected in an assault and that they release video of the shooting. State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Schweigart said 43 adults and 8 juveniles who refused multiple orders to disperse were arrested.
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Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges requested a federal civil rights investigation into the case.
“I have asked for this because we need all the tools we have available to us … a healthy investigative process is best for everyone, the family, the officers and the community”, Hodges said.
Clark suspected of assault was shot by a police officer on a north Minneapolis street early Sunday. He reportedly interfered with paramedics at the scene, following which he got into a scuffle with police who tried to calm him. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the man was not handcuffed.
Two officers involved in the shooting are on paid leave – which is standard procedure after incidents such as this.
Witnesses said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot in the head and his body was removed quickly from the scene, according to a Black Lives Matter Minneapolis statement.
Clark, 24, was shot by police outside an apartment on Plymouth Ave.
Authorities said a window at the precinct was broken amid the protests and two police vehicles were damaged, including a marked squad auto in which all the windows and a camera were broken, and an expletive was scratched into the hood. She declined to say how long the investigation could take.
According to court documents, Clark has past convictions that include an aggravated robbery in 2010 and one for terroristic threats from earlier this year.
“The majority of African-Americans in this city live at or below the poverty line, are facing double-digit unemployment, and are concentrated in the poorest areas of the city where over-policing occurs”, she said, “and that’s part of what leads to a lot of the racial the tensions that we see happening between black residents and the police department”.
As you are aware, there was an officer-involved shooting this this past weekend in Minneapolis. However, ColorofChange says the entire event was likely captured by a nearby camera, but that the police refuse to release the footage.
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In 2014, prominent civil rights activist Al Flowers complained of being the victim of brutality when police served a warrant on a relative at his home. In addition to the state investigation, I am asking the Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s Office to review this matter and open a Civil Rights investigation. “Each and every one of us out here would be held accountable if we murdered someone”, she added.
