MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Fires burned and looters struck Thursday after violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody rocked a Minneapolis neighborhood for a second straight night, with damage stretching for miles across the city and Mayor Jacob Frey appealing to the governor to activate the National Guard.
Protesters began gathering in the early afternoon Wednesday near the city’s 3rd Precinct station, in the southern part of the city where 46-year-old George Floyd died on Memorial Day after an officer knelt on his neck until he became unresponsive.
It was a second and much more violent night in Minneapolis since the death of Floyd, whom police were seeking to arrest outside a Minneapolis grocery store on a report of a counterfeit bill being passed.
A bystander’s cellphone video showed an officer kneeling on Floyd ‘s neck for almost eight minutes as he eventually became unresponsive.s
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI in Minneapolis said Thursday they were conducting “a robust criminal investigation” into Floyd’s death and was making the case a priority.
On Wednesday night, officers responding to a reported stabbing near the protests found a man lying on the sidewalk with what turned out to be a bullet wound, Elder said.
