Authorities in Minnesota have arrested two of the three men who are suspected of firing shots into a Black Lives Matter protest Monday.
The shooting took place at about 10:45 p.m. Central time Monday night, as Black Lives Matter activists reportedly tried to move away from the men who had been taunting them. Then, the men opened fire into the encampment near the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct, hitting five people.
Minneapolis police said they arrested a 23-year-old white suspect in Bloomington Tuesday morning. Soon afterwards, a 32-year-old Hispanic man was arrested in south Minneapolis as the potential second shooter, police said on Twitter. They are still searching for a third suspect.
The victims of the shooting were all black men ages 19 through 43, and they were taken to hospitals after sustaining noncritical injuries, police said.
Miski Noor, a media contact for Black Lives Matter, told the Star Tribune “a group of white supremacists showed up at the protest, as they have done most nights.”
The shooters were wearing bulletproof vests under their clothing, said Carrie Brown, the cousin of a shooting victim. Brown lives near the precinct building where the shooting took place and said she was cooking dinner for the protesters when “these four white guys walked up. … They had masks and they had a briefcase. I thought they were there to donate [something].”
“We are sparing no efforts to bring any and all those responsible to justice,” Mayor Betsy Hodges said after the first arrest.
FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said his department is “aware of the incident and is coordinating with the Minneapolis Police Department to assess the facts and determine if further federal action” is warranted, while Ben Petok, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Andy Luger’s office, said the attorney’s office and the Department of Justice civil rights division is also taking a look at the incident.
