DAUNTE WRIGHT SHOOTING: 40 ARRESTED DURING 2ND NIGHT OF PROTESTS

Tue 13 April 2021:

Police and protesters clashed for the second consecutive night in a Minnesota suburb Monday

The Minnesota police used tear gas and stun grenades on Monday evening to disperse the crowds that took to the streets of the US city of Brooklyn Center after an officer allegedly shot dead a young black man, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Authorities arrested about 40 people during a second night of protests after the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, officials said early Tuesday.

Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a small city in Hennepin County where 20-year-old Daunte Wright was killed Sunday during a traffic stop, is about 10 miles from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis officer in May and where a former officer charged with second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter is currently standing trial.

On Monday night, despite a 7 p.m. curfew enacted by Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, protesters stood face to face with Brooklyn Center officers, saying enough is enough, with large crowds demonstrating long into the night.

Law enforcement agencies stepped up their presence across the Minneapolis area. The number of Minnesota National Guard troops was expected to more than double to over 1,000 by Monday night.

Some of the nearby grocery stores were severely vandalized and looted. Gas could be smelled on the premises secured by the police.

Supporters of Black lives traveled from far and wide to protest injustice in Minnesota on Monday night.

Organizers from the Movement for Black Lives, a national coalition of more than 150 Black-led political and advocacy groups, pointed to Wright’s killing as yet another reason why cities must take up proposals for defunding an “irreparably broken, racist system.”

Wright “should not have had his life ripped from him last night. The fact that police killed him just miles from where they murdered George Floyd last year is a slap in the face to an entire community who continues to grieve,” said Karissa Lewis, the coalition’s national field director.

The fatal shooting of Wright during an attempt to restrain him sparked nightly clashes between hundreds of protesters and police officers, forcing the authorities to deploy National Guard units and impose a curfew in Brooklyn Center, a city adjacent to Minneapolis.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believed his officer, who has since been identified as Kim Potter, intended to grab her Taser before she shot Wright in the chest.

“As I watched the video and listened to the officer’s commands, it is my belief the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” Gannon said Monday while releasing body-cam video of the shooting. “This appears to me from what I viewed and the officer’s reaction in distress immediately after that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in a tragic death of Mr. Wright.”

“We will get to the bottom of this,” Mayor Mike Elliott of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, said after the release of body-camera video Monday showing an officer fatally shooting Daunte Wright on Sunday. The police chief said he believed it was accidental. https://t.co/2gEydIEfy1 pic.twitter.com/QvfTayg94k

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 13, 2021

“I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” the officer is heard shouting on her body cam footage released at a news conference. She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.

After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and the officer is heard saying, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”

A police body camera captures the fatal traffic stop where 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by US police

Upon reviewing the footage, Police Chief Tim Gannon says he believed the shooting was accidental.#DaunteWright pic.twitter.com/nlt8xLLUNd

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) April 13, 2021