A police officer in Minnesota shot a Black driver who later died on Sunday in the city of Brooklyn Center, the authorities and witnesses said, The New York Times reported.
By late Sunday, billowing streams of smoke and loud bangs filled the air around the Brooklyn Center Police Department Headquarters as police officers fired numerous devices toward a large crowd of protesters that had gathered outside the building. Just before 10 p.m., the police declared the gathering unlawful and ordered people to disperse. They did not.
The scene had been largely nonviolent, though hours earlier, a crowd that gathered near the scene where the driver died included some people who jumped on police vehicles and broke their windows, according to video posted on Facebook.
Outside the police building on Sunday night, people chanted, “Black Lives They Matter Here,” and “Hands up, don’t shoot,” as the police released kept firing objects toward the crowd.
On Twitter, Gov. Tim Walz said that he was “closely monitoring the situation in Brooklyn Center” and that the state “mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”
Just before 2 p.m., officers pulled over a driver for a traffic violation and determined that the driver had an outstanding warrant, the Brooklyn Center Police Department said in a statement. Officers tried to arrest the driver but he “re-entered the vehicle,” the police said.
“One officer discharged their firearm, striking the driver,” the statement said. “The vehicle then traveled several blocks before striking another vehicle.”
The driver died at the scene of the crash in a residential neighborhood, the police said. The police also said they believed body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras “were activated” during the episode.
RHM/PR