A candlelight vigil and march was planned for 4:30 p.m. Friday outside the precinct headquarters. “They know what’s going on… and they don’t want to hear it”, community activist Michelle Gross said after she was ejected from the meeting.
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Police recovered these items near the 4th Precinct tonight.
At least three protesters were removed from a Minneapolis City Council meeting on Friday after they voiced their disapproval over how city leaders have handled the investigation of Sunday’s police killing of an unarmed black man.
Authorities have said videos showing portions of Jamar Clark’s scuffle with police were shot from a camera in the ambulance, a mobile police camera mounted in the area, a public housing surveillance camera, and the cell phones of citizens.
Hundreds of people gathered outside a Minneapolis police precinct on a cold Friday night to call for peace and release of videos after a black man was fatally shot by an officer.
Mayor Betsy Hodges has met with protesters to try to diffuse tensions, but says releasing video would jeopardize an investigation of the shooting by state authorities.
Several speakers are calling for unity and justice.
Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, told reporters Thursday it shows there’s been a “militarization” of the department. He asked those who are grieving to behave in ways that don’t cause damage to people’s lives and safety. A night earlier in the same spot, police said officers were hit with pepper spray, bottles, rocks and bricks, and a chemical spray was used to control the crowd.
Police say they were responding to an assault call in which Clark was a suspect and arrived to find Clark interfering with paramedics trying to treat the injured woman. A day earlier, a number of council members joined protests over the shooting.
The head of the Minneapolis police union, Bob Kroll, says the department should take a tougher stance with protesters.
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They say release of any information, including any video, would be “extremely detrimental” to the independent investigation that the Justice Department and FBI are conducting into whether Clark’s death violated any federal laws. She has praised officers for what she said is restraint under tough circumstances and said police will arrest people where they have enough evidence.
