Titus said: “The governor’s statement insinuates that law enforcement is racist and it’s absolutely inaccurate and inappropriate”.
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The demonstrators closed a major interstate and then marched on the governor’s mansion, where a violent confrontation took place after almost a week of peaceful demonstrations.
Clark’s statement said “rioters endangered others when they stormed Interstate 94, refused to follow more than two dozen orders from law enforcement officers to leave the freeway, and instead opted to participate in an incident that developed into a full-scale riot”. City officers and State Patrol troopers had rocks, bottles and firecrackers thrown at them. None of their injuries were believed to be serious. Demonstrators were seen on a pedestrian overpass throwing objects including bricks and rebar at officers and dumped liquid on them. One officer suffered broken vertebrae from a concrete chunk that ws dropped from an overpass.
Hundreds of people blocked the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River on Sunday, a day when people across the country protested police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
“We have always said we will draw the line between inconvenience and endangerment”, Coleman said. “It’s really a disgrace”. Attorney Tom Kelly says it was the presence of a gun and the actions of Castile that led to the deadly shooting.
As a licensed firearm carrier, I have had to undergo significant and ongoing training, in both the safe operation of firearm and in the legal and prudential implications of bearing arms as a civilian. Muflahi has said: “I was just in shock”. “This is something that just doesn’t happen in St. Paul”. Officers struggled for more than four hours to disperse the crowd, at times deploying smoke and marking rounds in a standoff that stretched into early Sunday before snowplows cleared debris and the highway was reopened to traffic.
Over the weekend, authorities, protest leaders and the mother of one of the victims have appealed for calm as over 300 demonstrators, angry at the latest killings of black men by police officers, were arrested in a weekend of intense, sometimes violent nationwide protests. The BCA has previously been accused of pro-police bias, including in the November 2015 police-shooting death of Jamar Clark, after which the county declined to seek charges against the officers involved.
The 37-year-old Sterling was shot multiple times in the chest and back while he was being held on the ground by police.
Minneapolis NAACP chapter President Nekima Levy-Pounds vowed to fight through a hoarse voice and speak to the gathering about “last night’s horrific events on I-94”.
Officers arrested 50 people on suspicion of third-degree riot in connection to the incident.
Elsewhere, protests in downtown Chicago resulted in three arrests, with pending charges, according to police.
At least 198 people were arrested in NY and Chicago and in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where two black men were shot to death by police.
The unrest in the Twin Cities has drawn the head of the national NAACP to Minnesota.
San Antonio police say shots fired overnight near the department headquarters hit the building, but nobody was hurt.
And in a nod to the presidential campaign pitting presumptive nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Brooks said, “We want them to clearly state their commitment to address criminal justice reform and the issues of racial profiling, use of excessive force, and stop and frisk abuses”. Protesters had moved a small pickup onto the highway and were broadcasting with sound equipment.
Police spokesman Cpl L’ Jean McKneely said that on Tuesday, officers were called to the scene at around 12:35am after reports that a man selling CDs outside a convenience store had pointed a gun at someone.
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A second rally in front of the Minnesota governor’s residence began at 7 p.m., and was organized by Black Lives Matter.
