Police and protesters clash, arrests made after more unrest in Brooklyn Center
Police and protesters face off in Brooklyn Center on Sunday, Apr. 11.
Tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs were once again deployed by police in response to the large crowd of people protesting the killing of Daunte Wright by Brooklyn Center Police Department.
The crowd gathered outside the police station before the 7 p.m. curfew went into effect and hundreds stayed beyond it.
As the night drew in, police wearing riot gear started using crowd control munitions in response to projectiles being thrown by some protesters. There were a few clashes between protesters and police as the crowd was moved along Brooklyn Center's streets.
On several occasions police used tear gas, with video from WCCO's David Schuman showing some of it deployed near residential apartments, while a Star Tribune photographer says he was among those pepper sprayed as he tried to document the scene.
The leaders of Operation Safety Net estimated that around 40 people were arrested in the Twin Cities in connection with the overnight unrest.
The Hennepin County Jail log shows many of those arrests were for unlawful assembly and public nuisance as people stayed on the streets beyond curfew.
But there were also some arrests for property damage and burglary, with some looting breaking out in parts of Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis, though there appears to have been fewer instances of this than on Sunday, when dozens of commercial properties were damaged and looted.
Among the properties damaged was the Dollar Tree in Brooklyn Center, which sustained some looting prior to protesters and the police line making its way past it, as the crowd was pushed north on Humboldt Avenue.
Crowds renewed their protests after Brooklyn Center Police Department released bodycam footage of Daunte Wright's fatal shooting on Sunday, with Police Chief Tim Gannon saying he believed Officer Kim Potter mistakenly pulled her gun instead of her Taser.
Earlier in the evening, Wright's mother Katie spoke to mourners at a vigil where he died, saying: "My heart is literally broken in 1,000 pieces."
