Police shot and killed a black man on Sunday during a stop for a traffic violation, sparking demonstrations just miles away from where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last May.
Officers pulled over Daunte Wright, 20, for a traffic violation shortly before 2 p.m. and discovered he had an outstanding arrest warrant, according to a statement issued by Brooklyn Center police.
As authorities tried to take him into custody, Wright got back in the vehicle. One officer shot him, who was not identified in the statement. The car drove several blocks before striking another vehicle. Wright was pronounced dead at the scene.
The state deployed the National Guard after large crowds amassed outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department Sunday evening, prompting a curfew in place by Mayor Mike Elliott, NBC News reported.
Protesters gathered late Sunday in a crowd of nearly 100 to 200 people marching toward the police department.
Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas after demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at the department building, according to John Harrington, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
The Brooklyn Park Police Department, nearly eight miles from the Brooklyn Center Police Department, had its front door struck by gunfire and glass shattered, police revealed in a statement.
Brooklyn Park Police officers were not involved in the shooting but aided Brooklyn Center Police with the “civil unrest” that took place after the shooting, the department said.
Nearly 20 businesses were reportedly broken into next to a nearby shopping center, adding the curfew was put in place to “keep our community safe,” Harrington announced in a statement on Twitter.
— Mayor Mike Elliott (@mayor_elliott) April 12, 2021
Gov. Tim Walz posted a statement to Twitter at around 10:00 p.m. Sunday, saying,” I am closely monitoring the situation in Brooklyn Center. Gwen and I are praying for Daunte Wright’s family as our state mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”
Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, told the press she received a call from her son Sunday afternoon telling her police pulled him over for having air fresheners dangling from his rear-view mirror, which is illegal in Minnesota. She requested to have an officer put on the phone, so she could offer insurance details.
Shortly after the call started, she reportedly heard authorities tell her son to get out of the vehicle.
“I heard police officers say, ‘Daunte, don’t run,'” his mother said. After the call concluded, she dialed his number again, and his girlfriend answered and said he had been shot.
Body cameras were worn by officers during the time of the shooting Sunday afternoon, according to Kare 11. The American Civil Liberties Union called for an immediate outside investigation and requested to view the police body-cam footage.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Washington Examiner contacted the Brooklyn Center Police Department but did not immediately receive a response.
