A huge crowd of anti-police brutality protesters gathered outside the fourth precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday, the day after masked men shot five protesters at the same location.
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A 23-year-old white man was arrested before midday in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington and two men aged 26 and 21, both white, turned themselves in and were later arrested, police said. The witnesses are adamant that there was no reason for police to shoot Clark; they say he was restrained.
The shooting happened about a block away from the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct, where Black Lives Matter protesters have demonstrated following the November 15 police shooting of Jamar Clark, who was unarmed.
Clark was allegedly the suspect in the domestic violence incident.
Impassioned speeches from pastors and Jamar Clark’s relatives were occasionally interrupted by shouts and applause inside the cavernous Shiloh Temple International Ministries.
“I heard the N word and that’s when everybody started charging”, he said.
Clark’s brother, Eddie Sutton, said in a statement that in light of the shootings, his family believed the demonstrations at the police station should end “out of imminent concern for the safety of the occupiers”.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, prior to the shooting, Black Lives Matter had planned to announce “next steps” that the group had prepared during a weekend strategy meeting with community organizers.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating Clark’s shooting as is the FBI, which said the release of videos and other evidence would be detrimental to the investigation. A protester allegedly punched one of them.
It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the shooting or how many suspects police were searching for.
The shooting occurred the night before the one-year anniversary of a Missouri grand jury’s decision against indicting white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
Black Lives Matter plans a march on Tuesday afternoon. One activist, 25-year-old Alexander Clark, told the New York Times that four nearby officers stood by during the shooting.
Then a group of protesters charged at the men and demanded they remove their masks, but witnesses said the men shouted back, “f*ck no”, and continued recording cell phone video. The walkout and rally were organized in just a few hours, after the news of the shooting the night before began to spread.
Protesters have been at the precinct for more than a week since 24-year-old Jamar Clark, a black man, died after being shot during a confrontation with police.
“[Minneapolis police] worked nonstop through the night to bring justice in last night’s shooting”, Police Chief Janeé Harteau tweeted on Tuesday. FBI spokesman Kyle A. Loven released a statement declaring that the FBI was monitoring the situation and would decide “as to whether or not any further federal action is necessary”.
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The group’s Facebook page said that they were shot at by what it described as “white supremacists”. A protester who gave his name as Big Don Carlito says demonstrations no longer have anything to do with the Clark family. All had injuries that were not life-threatening.
