For the fourth night in a row, hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday night outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department, many of them demanding that more serious charges be brought against the former police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright.
"What she did is murder! How do you not know your Taser from your gun?" asked Loretta VanPelt of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, before a 7 p.m. rally began.
Earlier Wednesday, former Brooklyn Center officer Kimberly A. Potter was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. She resigned on Tuesday.
Since Sunday, hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the police station to protest police violence toward Black people.
Tensions escalated Tuesday night when more than 60 people were arrested for riot and other criminal behaviors after law enforcement moved in with heavy force against an estimated 800 to 1,000 protesters.
VanPelt and others questioned the need for the heavy police presence.
"How are we the violent ones? They're the ones ready for war," she said of the National Guard members and riot police stationed behind fortified fences across the street. "They're the ones dressed for war."
At 6 p.m., as speakers led the chanting crowd in the street outside the police headquarters, several dozen sheriff's deputies and National Guardsmen came out of the building and took positions on the lawn, behind a chain-link fence separating them from the crowd. At 7:30, about a dozen officers took up position on the police station roof.
Brooklyn Center and a few other metro suburbs again declared curfews Wednesday night. Brooklyn Center and adjacent Brooklyn Park declared curfews from 10 p.m. Wednesday through 6 a.m. Thursday. Curfews were not enacted in Minneapolis or St. Paul.
After looting in Brooklyn Center and parts of Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday nights, none was reported Tuesday night.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott urged protesters to remain peaceful and abide by the 10 p.m. curfew, but he also made it clear that he didn't agree with policing tactics against protesters, and the members of the media, who were asked to leave the area on Tuesday night.
"I did initially ask for mutual aid," he said. "The operation last night was under the auspices of the sheriff's office. And that's all I'll say about that."
Elliott was asked whether this was a "democratic crisis" given that he doesn't agree with law enforcement's response of tear gas and pepper spray but only has control over his own officers.
He said most of his officers were responding to 911 calls across the city. "Our police department was not engaged in using any pepper spray or gas," he said, adding that there needs to be a different approach to policing. "Gassing is not a humane way of policing."
Potter fatally shot the 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop Sunday. Police Chief Tim Gannon said she appeared to mistake her gun for a Taser. On Monday, Brooklyn Center police officials released body-camera video showing Potter grabbing her sidearm and shooting Wright as he appeared to try to flee in his car during the stop.
Potter and Gannon resigned Tuesday.
Many at Wednesday's rally compared Potter's case to that of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor's case, saying Potter should also face murder charges.
"What do we want? Murder charges! What she did was murder," Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the crowd as the rally began. "How is it possible Mohamed Noor got murder charges and not her?"
Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her house in 2017. He is serving a 12½-year prison sentence.
Noor was the first former Minnesota police officer found guilty of an on-duty murder.
In Duluth on Wednesday, nearly 150 people filled a downtown street, chanting "No justice, no peace" and "Black lives matter."
"We're being told by police, 'Put your hands up' and you're still killing us," organizer Lamarquita Leach said. "There's so much in the system that needs to change. We'd have to start a whole new system."
Staff writers Kim Hyatt and Brooks Johnson contributed to this report.
liz.sawyer@startribune.com 612-673-4648
john.reinan@startribune.com 612-673-7402
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