Protesters have remained at the precinct since Clark was shot, with as few as a couple dozen to as many as several hundred.
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As for the protesters, as long as they are civil, peaceful and don’t deliberately threaten public safety, it’s hard to think they should have to leave. The men have not been charged with hate crimes.
Scarsella will be charged with five counts of second-degree assault with a unsafe weapon and one count of second-degree riot while armed, and the other three men will receive only the riot charge, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Investigators also viewed a video maid by J.S. and Scarsella on their way to the protest on November 19th.
27-year-old Joseph Backman of Eagan, 21-year-old Nathan Gustavsson of Hermantown, and 26-year-old Daniel Macey of Pine City each face a riot charge.
A police union representative has said Clark grabbed one officer’s gun, although the weapon remained in its holster. But some people who said they saw the shooting allege the 24-year-old was handcuffed. Police say they arrived to find him interfering with paramedics trying to treat an injured woman. Users on 4chan are reacting to the news of Scarsella’s arrest with their usual thoughtfulness and racial sensitivity. One protester was shot in the stomach, they said. The shooters, who were dressed in masks and military camoflage, fit the description of supremacists who protesters were warned about before the incident took place.
“We deplore near-daily threats to burn down the precinct and kill or harm officers”, the statement said. He says he’s staying.
The shooting occurred less than a day before national attention turned to Chicago after a police officer there was charged with murder for shooting a 17-year-old last year.
Questions have been raised over whether Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, which police have denied.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said Monday the encampment has become unsafe.
Wes Martin, one of the five shooting victims, spoke at a press conference held by Black Lives Matter and the Minneapolis NAACP at the 4th Precinct after Freeman announced the charges. No one had life-threatening wounds.
All four men are now in custody. Additional details weren’t immediately available.
Clark, 24, died in a confrontation with police who were responding to an assault call in which Clark was a suspect. It also states the barricades on Plymouth Avenue impede access for emergency vehicles and snow plows.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and other local community leaders joined Hodges on Monday in asking for protesters to end their demonstration.
According to the complaint against Allen “Lance” Scarsella, above right, his phone contained racist images and “many photos of himself with guns” when police searched it after his arrest last week. No one suffered life-threatening wounds. Three are white and the fourth is Asian.
Police say Clark was fatally shot earlier this month after he struggled with officers.
“They turned around and they just started shooting, and at first I wasn’t sure”, said Wronski-Riley.
Court documents show the lawsuit against Dustin Schwarze was filed about 10 days before the shooting death of Clark. The lawsuit says Schwarze also threatened to beat that passenger and another if they left the vehicle.
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Two already have come about: release of names of the two officers involved in the Clark shooting and the launch of an independent federal investigation.
