All four men had been in custody since last week in the shooting near the protest camp that sprung up after the fatal shooting by police of Jamar Clark, 24, two weeks ago.
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NPR reports that Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman named the men at a news conference on Monday.
Freeman noted it is possible that federal charges could be brought. The charges said eight shots were fired at the five men after they confronted Scarsella’s group.
Further search of their correspondence revealed the following: “Investigators also viewed a video made by J.S. and Scarsella on their way to the protest on November 19th”.
The other suspects in the shooting were identified by police as 27-year-old Joseph Martin Backman of Eagan, 21-year-old Nathan Wayne Gustavsson of Hermantown, and 26-year-old Daniel Thomas Macey of Pine City.
Protesters have remained at the precinct since Clark was shot, with as few as a couple dozen to as many as several hundred. The officers involved are on leave. All were charged with rioting with weapons and one with shooting five black men.
Evidence shows that the other three men were with Scarsella before and after the shooting.
The above item has been corrected to show that Allen Lawrence Scarsella is 23, not 22. Police say Clark interfered with a paramedic who was administering aid to an injured woman and was shot and killed in the ensuing scuffle.
Clark, 24, died in a confrontation with police who were responding to an assault call in which Clark was a suspect.
But protesters have vowed to stay at the precinct despite the cold weather and last week’s shooting that left five black men with injuries that weren’t life-threatening.
Scarsella lives in St. Paul and grew up in Lakeville, Minnesota, according to his Facebook page, where his cover photo features the one-starred “Bonnie Blue” flag often associated with the Confederacy.
The Hennepin County attorney’s office reported it has filed the charges today. Additional details weren’t immediately available.
Before the attack, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had warned of militant white supremacist threats, but received little support from police and local authorities.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and other city leaders are asking protesters to voluntarily end their occupation of the Fourth Precinct. He had been shot in the leg at the 4th Precinct in Minneapolis. Some community members have alleged that Clark, who was black, was handcuffed when he was shot.
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“These four individuals violently impacted peoples’ right to demonstrate”, he said. They have cited safety concerns, including lack of access for emergency vehicles and snowplows, along with complaints from the neighborhood over the noise of helicopters and the campfire smoke.
