The shooting happened at 10:40 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, near 14th Avenue North and Morgan Avenue North. The area is one block north of the 4th Precinct station at 1925 Plymouth Ave., where protesters have been stationed since the fatal officer-involved shooting of 24-year-old Jamar Clark on Sunday, Nov. 15.
Advertisement
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.
21-year-old Nathan Wayne Gustavsson; and 26-year-old Daniel Thomas Macey each face a riot charge. Police have said that Scarsella, Gustavsson and Backman are white, and that Macey is Asian.
Prosecutors have charged four men after shots were fired at demonstrators protesting the killing of a black man by Minneapolis police.
News of the charges was received with frustration by the Black Lives Matter branch in Minneapolis, who said they should have been charged with attempted murder, hate crime or domestic terrorism.
“Regardless of the political consequences, it’s good when the County Attorney’s Office focuses on what they believe they can prove and not only be responsive to what the public may want”, Latz said “The law doesn’t give any room for that to be part of the equation”.
In a YouTube video posted on Black Lives Matter’s Facebook page November 19, two men identify themselves to viewers as “SaigaMarine” and “Black Powder Ranger” (who has been identified as Scarsella) while driving to the 4th Precinct site. Hodges said the campfires are making the air harmful to children and older people in the neighborhood who have respiratory problems.
According to the charges, Scarsella’s phone contained racist images and many photos of himself holding guns.
According to a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension statement, the responding Minneapolis police officers believed that the woman was an assault victim and that Clark was a suspect.
“We’re going to stand our ground”.
While demonstrators have called on police to release video footage of the shooting, Evans said that police have multiple videos related to the encounter but no complete video documenting the shooting. She also said the protesters’ barricades are blocking access for emergency vehicles and snowplows.
Levy-Pounds and others continue to demand that authorities immediately release video collected of the Jamar Clark shooting.
They said the police were preparing to forcibly remove them from the street. Clark died the next day from a gunshot wound to the head.
Monday morning, Mayor Betsy Hodges urged protesters to clear the 4th precinct. The acquaintance held up a handgun before the camera in one posting and ended the video with the words “stay white”.
Advertisement
Two other officers and the city of Richfield also are named in the lawsuit, which gained media attention when it was moved from Hennepin County District Court to U.S. District Court last week.
