Clashes continued Wednesday evening between police and protesters outside the Brooklyn Center police station following the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by a police officer in the Minneapolis suburb.
Law enforcement reportedly fired paintballs, a chemical spray and flash-bang grenades at protesters after declaring the assembly unlawful, according to The New York Times.
A reporter for The Times, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, shared several videos and images from the night on Twitter. “Police just got more aggressive, firing what appears to be a flasbang directly into the crowd (video) and firing dozens of paintballs,” he tweeted in a post sharing one video.
“They just declared the assembly in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, unlawful. Things quickly escalating,” he added.
More than 60 people were arrested Wednesday night, according to the head of Minnesota State Patrol, Bogel-Burroughs tweeted.
The chaotic scenes took place about an hour before the city’s 10 p.m. curfew, which was extended on Wednesday, began. The curfew is in place until 6 a.m. local time Thursday.
The latest clashes came after Kim Potter, the Brooklyn Center police officer who shot Wright, was charged with second-degree manslaughter, the Washington County Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, died Sunday after he was shot by Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis. Police officials previously said Potter, who had been with the department for 26 years, had mistaken her gun for a Taser.
The Brooklyn Center police station was surrounded by members of the Minnesota National Guard on Wednesday, with State Patrol officers firing several flash-bang grenades into the air, as demonstrators chanted and threw water bottles, The Times reported.
Police just got more aggressive, firing what appears to be a flasbang directly into the crowd (video) and firing dozens of paintballs.
They just declared the assembly in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, unlawful.
Things quickly escalating. pic.twitter.com/2XgwQwawQP
— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) April 15, 2021
Flash-bang grenades (also known as stun grenades) are designed to temporarily blind and disorient. They emit more than 12 million lumens of light, which is enough to blind anyone within five yards for up to five seconds.
Their bang produces around 180 decibels of sound. Ears can begin to hurt at 125 decibels.
Bogel-Burroughs tweeted: “The police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, are spraying a chemical from behind a fence (see video) and firing marker rounds (which stains clothes) after several people threw bottles of water at officers. Things are getting more intense as it gets dark here,” sharing a video of the scene.
He also shared images of one of the projectiles. “Police in Brooklyn Center are firing a lot of these tonight, which strike people and explode, staining their clothes with paint/chalk (and, it seems, stinging),” he wrote.
People were seen using umbrellas to shield themselves from projectiles being fired from across a fence.
“So much pepper spray. Everyone is coughing — not just people in the crowd but lots of police officers downwind from the ones spraying it,” he tweeted, sharing a video of one scene.
The police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, are spraying a chemical from behind a fence (see video) and firing marker rounds (which stains clothes) after several people threw bottles of water at officers.
Things are getting more intense as it gets dark here. pic.twitter.com/qLIQEvMbIy
— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) April 15, 2021
Protesters also used trash cans and wooden pallets to create barriers, which were quickly overrun by State Patrol officers, still according to Bogel-Burroughs.
State Patrol officers were reported to have also ordered the media to leave the area.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota: “State troopers have commanded reporters to leave the area and abandon their reporting, even though curfews in Brooklyn Center and Hennepin County specifically exempted journalists.
On Wednesday, the ACLU filed a motion in federal court “for a temporary restraining order to stop law enforcement from attacking and harassing reporters covering the Daunte Wright protests.”
Late Wednesday evening, Minnesota Operation Safety Net tweeted: “@MnDPS_MSP [Minnesota State Patrol] Col. Matt Langer says law enforcement have refined a process to quickly ID credentialed members of the media who get wrapped up in events to work with them quickly so they can get back to their jobs.”
Newsweek has contacted the Brooklyn Center police, the Minnesota National Guard and State Patrol, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the ACLU of Minnesota and the Brooklyn Center city government for comment.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
