Minneapolis buildings vandalized, police say, after authorities shoot and kill suspect
Some buildings in Minneapolis were vandalized and looted late Thursday and early Friday, police said, amid protests over authorities’ fatal shooting of a suspect during an arrest attempt.
While trying to arrest a person wanted on a felony warrant in a parked car in Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon, US Marshals task force members shot the suspect after the person “produced a handgun” and “failed to comply with officers’ commands,” the US Marshals Service said in a prepared statement.
That person died at the scene, according to the statement, obtained by CNN affiliate WCCO. A second person, a female who also was in the car, sustained minor injuries from glass debris, the service said.
The suspect had been wanted on a state arrest warrant for possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the marshals service.
The shooting led to protests in Minneapolis’ Uptown area during the evening and overnight.
People began gathering at the scene to watch investigators, and some people began chanting “insults at Minneapolis police, whose officers were providing perimeter support,” the Star Tribune reported.
Most dispersed by early evening, but a crowd returned after 9:15 p.m., not long after investigators left, WCCO reported.
People dragged a trash container into an intersection and set it on fire, and pulled down crime scene tape, according to WCCO.
Video from WCCO also shows exterior glass broken at a nearby CVS store Thursday night.
Buildings were looted and damaged, Minneapolis police said early Friday in a brief advisory, without elaborating.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is leading an investigation into Thursday’s shooting.
Thursday’s shooting comes as the city grapples with last year’s killing of George Floyd during his arrest in Minneapolis last year, and with the murder conviction in that case of former police officer Derek Chauvin.
On Thursday, Minneapolis city workers removed parts of a memorial at the intersection where Floyd took his final breaths, as the city stated its plans to create a permanent memorial and reopen the area to through-traffic.
The intersection where Floyd died — Chicago Avenue and 38th Street — is about a 3-mile drive southeast of where Thursday’s shooting happened.
Shortly after the removal of the Floyd memorial, some activists blocked the intersection.
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Mayor Jacob Frey said the city workers’ efforts were just the first step in a “phased reconnection” of the Chicago Avenue/38th Street intersection, and he acknowledged that it will be some time before the intersection is open to traffic for good.
