The Black Lives Matter demonstrators would not go into detail about what exactly they have planned, but supporters and Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant said they’re in it for the right reasons.
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Five people suffered non-life threatening injuries in the shooting that occurred just before 10:45 p.m. on Monday, police say.
Police have arrested two unnamed men in connection with Monday night’s shooting of five Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis. A 26-year-old white man and a 21-year-old white man are now being interviewed by investigators.
Protesters approached a group of men before the shooting and tried to escort them away from the precinct.
Late into the night, after protesters had spent hours shouting into the cops’ faces and the cops had attempted several maneuvers to surround the crowd and tear down their tents, police began spraying people through the parking lot fence. Some community members who say they saw the incident allege Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, which police have disputed.
Clark was allegedly the suspect in the domestic violence incident.
“Like all Minnesotans, I was horrified to learn about the shooting of five people outside the Fourth Precinct last night”. Police are searching for three white male suspects involved in the shooting, which took place near the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct. The FBI has said release of videos and other evidence would be detrimental to the investigation.
A witness identified as Dana Jaehnert said one of the men was wearing a mask.
Ellison’s office early Tuesday issued a statement on behalf of the Clark family after the shootings, calling for an end to the protests for safety’s sake, a request that organizers quickly rejected. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said that authorities were still working to determine whether Clark was handcuffed when he died.
In the days since then, protesters occupied and then were ejected from the foyer of the 4th Precinct.
“I heard the N word and that’s when everybody started charging”, he said.
Authorities have been hesitant to label the attacks on the Black Lives Matter demonstrators a hate crime. “We are there until we get justice for Jamar Clark”, she said.
Officials have said Clark was shot during a struggle with cops after he interfered with paramedics trying to help an assault victim.
But for all of those warnings, there was no way of knowing whether the shootings Monday night were indeed the work of white supremacists.
Protesters and Clark’s family have called for investigators to release video of the shooting.
Almost 1,000 demonstrators marched on city hall on Tuesday to protest the shooting and to demand justice.
As the firewood was piled high outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct on Tuesday afternoon, protesters holding boxes of pizza walked through the crowd, offering up slices to those they passed by. The witnesses are adamant that there was no reason for police to shoot Clark; they say he was restrained.
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Inside, his obituary said the 24-year-old man “liked to swim, fish, listen to music, play basketball, be with family and take trips to Charlotte, North Carolina”. After a scuffle, some of the men opened fire. “It’s hard for me to have to explain or know how to explain all of this in a way that they can understand”, she said about the killing.
