MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A steady stream of mourners entered a north Minneapolis church on Wednesday to pay their respects to a man whose death in a confrontation with police sparked more than a week of protests.
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Four suspects held in connection with a shooting that injured five protesters during a rally against police brutality in Minneapolis have been named.
The Shiloh Temple International Ministries church is about a mile from the police station where protesters have gathered since Clark’s shooting.
At the visitation, leaflets shared details about Clark, who was the youngest of 10 children and liked to swim, fish, listen to music and take trips to Charlotte, N.C. The service also included a slideshow of pictures of Clark as he grew up.
Some at the funeral wore white T-shirts with “I matter” on the front or T-shirts with Clark’s photo, while others were dressed formally.
“I’ve been doing this work for 30 years, and I’ve never seen such a spirit of openness and trying to figure out what’s appropriate for policing as I’ve seen here”, says Tom Tyler, a Yale University professor of law and psychology, told the Monitor at a police summit in Chicago last month. “We ain’t turning around, but we’re here fighting for justice”.
After Clark was killed November 15, police said that he was the suspect in an assault and interfered when paramedics tried to treat the assault victim.
The funeral procession went past the 4th Precinct police station, where Black Lives Matters activists and others have been camped out for days.
Protesters have won a couple of their original demands: for there to be an independent federal investigation into the shooting and for names of the two officers involved in the incident to be released.
This week, with the impending release of the video of Laquan McDonald’s death that Chicago officials withheld for more than a year, Cook County prosecutors brought charges against the officer who allegedly shot him 16 times.
“Jamar, your life did and does have objective”, he said to a standing ovation.
Protest organizers said the Thanksgiving meal, which they dubbed “Blacksgiving”, was aimed at showing gratitude for support demonstrators have received from near and far.
Belton asked protesters to end the vigil outside the 4th Precinct and allow the federal and local investigations to move forward.
None of the injuries from Monday night’s shooting are believed to be life threatening, police have said.
The shootings spurred a march Tuesday evening, with a racially mixed crowd marching more than 2 miles to City Hall and back.
Family members of 24-year-old Jamar Clark also asked for no protests on Wednesday as he is laid to rest. Ahead of a planned protest in Portland, Ore., he tweeted: “Black Lives Matter is planning to protest at Lloyd Center on black Friday”.
“We are locked and loaded”, SaigaMarine said, who later said “stay white” before ending the video.
“We ran up on the scene and saw all those folks on the ground, and then probably like five minutes later the police came”, he said. She said they came in with their faces covered and filmed the crowd but would not talk to people. According to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension – the state agency investigating the shooting – they have both been with the Minneapolis police for a little more than a year, and both have been officers for seven years.
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Several videos have been examined, but state authorities say they do not show the entire incident.
