MINNEAPOLIS: Mayor takes heat for response

When George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died Monday after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes and ignored his “I can't breathe” pleas, Frey quickly expressed outrage and called for charges against the officer. Four officers were fired the next day, and on Friday, Officer Derek Chauvin was charged in Floyd’s death.

But Frey's leadership is being questioned after police failed to quell several nights of rioting, fires and ransacking of local businesses that followed Floyd's death. Frey, who pleaded for calm, also approved the decision to abandon the city's 3rd Precinct station on Thursday night, surrendering it to protesters who set fire to the building.

The night the station burned, Frey appeared at an early-morning news conference after hours of criticism on social media for a police response that didn’t confront the violence despite the activation of the National Guard. As he began talking, one reporter snapped, “What’s the plan here?” Frey struggled to answer, and the next morning, Gov. Tim Walz — like Frey, a Democrat — criticized the “abject failure” of the city’s response and said the state had taken control. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to call Frey a “very weak Radical Left Mayor” and threatened to get involved.

By early Saturday, it was Walz who found himself struggling with the enormity of the challenge, conceding he didn't have enough people to cope with the protests and moving to mobilize another 1,000 Guard members. Walz also took pains to praise Frey, who appeared alongside him after another night of unrest.

Late Saturday night, reporters from the Los Angeles Times claimed the police force attempting to mitigate the violent demonstrations had tear gassed them, even after identifying themselves as journalists, according to reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske. There were about 12 members of the media affected by the tear gas, according to Hennessey-Fiske.

Response casts doubt on Frey’s approach

Some wonder whether Frey’s approach to the crisis might damage his chances for reelection next year. The 38-year-old former lawyer, community organizer and one-term City Council member took office in 2018 after defeating Betsy Hodges, whose time as mayor was marred by two high-profile police shootings.

The 2015 shooting of 24-year-old black resident Jamar Clark after a scuffle with two white police officers set off weeks of protests; neither officer was charged. The 2017 shooting of unarmed Australia native Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her house, provoked an international outcry. The black officer in that case was convicted of third-degree murder and is serving a 12 1/2-year term.

Frey campaigned partly on a promise to add police officers. But a City Council committee this spring voted against applying for a federal grant to hire 10 new officers for traffic enforcement, with one member saying he worried it would exacerbate racial disparities in vehicle stops.

Community activist Mel Reeves, who said he has led rallies to protest Floyd’s killing, refused to discuss the mayor’s response except to say that Frey had been “put in a difficult position.” He said the black community doesn’t trust police and prosecutors to do the right thing.

“The mayor is new, and he said all the right things,” Reeves said. “This is not about the mayor; it’s about the police department.”

The day after the 3rd Precinct fire, University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said Frey was “out of his depth” and “clearly unable to understand what he has to do to restore order while also creating the kind of healing that has to happen in Minneapolis.”

On Saturday, state and faith leaders in Minneapolis called for peace and for people to stay home and respect social distancing and quarantine rules amid the coronavirus following a fourth night of unrest and violence.

“We cannot move forward when people are burning down our city. Burning down our state,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Saturday afternoon.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison implored people to comply with the curfew. He added that those being destructive and violent are mixing in with peaceful protesters in the streets after curfew and creating a negative image of demonstrators.

“What in the world does burning down (local businesses) Migizi or Juxtaposition Arts on the north side have to do with justice for Floyd?” Ellison asked. “Nothing!”

Ellison’s remarks echoed that of Walz, who said a portion of those being violent are not from the area.

“Our best estimate right now that I heard is about 20%, is what we think are Minnesotans, and about 80% are outside,” he said.

Lake Street, a community made up of many businesses owned by African American, Latinx, Indigenous and other marginalized communities, was heavily destroyed overnight. Volunteers have arrived to help with cleanup efforts.

Earlier Saturday, for the first time in state history, the Minnesota National Guard was mobilized in full, WCCO reported.

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Thousands of protesters ignored a curfew and vows of a forceful police response to take to the Minneapolis streets for a fourth consecutive night, as the anger stoked by the police killing of Floyd spread to more cities across the U.S.

The Pentagon on Saturday ordered the Army to put military police units on alert to head to the city on short notice at Trump’s request, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders who did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations. The rare step came as the violence spread to other cities: a man shot dead in Detroit, police cars battered in Atlanta and skirmishes with police in New York City.

Criminal charges filed Friday morning against the white officer who held his knee for nearly nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a black man, did nothing to stem the anger. Chauvin, 44, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Credit: Khadejeh Nikouyeh

Credit: Khadejeh Nikouyeh

Minneapolis police said shots had been fired at law enforcement officers during the protests but no one was injured.

As the night dragged on, fires erupted across the city’s south side, including at a Japanese restaurant, a Wells Fargo bank and an Office Depot. Many burned for hours, with firefighters again delayed in reaching them because areas weren’t secure.

Shortly before midnight, scores of officers on foot and in vehicles moved in to curb the violence, one day after city and state leaders faced blowback for their handling of the crisis. On Thursday, protesters had torched a police station soon after it was abandoned by police and went on to burn or vandalize dozens of businesses.

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association urged Walz to accept any help.

Credit: Julio Cortez

Credit: Julio Cortez

“You need more resources,” the group said in a tweet. “Law enforcement needs leadership.”

Not all the protests were violent. Downtown, thousands of demonstrators encircled a barricaded police station after the 8 p.m. Friday curfew. “Prosecute the police!” some chanted, and “Say his name: George Floyd!” Some protesters sprayed graffiti on buildings.

Anger filled the streets of Minneapolis.

Ben Hubert, a 26-year-old local resident, said he wasn’t surprised people were breaking curfew and setting fires.

“I’m outraged,” he said of the Floyd case. “But I’m also sad. The injustice has been going on for so long. It’s been swelling for years.”

Credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii

Credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii

Chauvin was also accused of ignoring another officer who expressed concerns about Floyd as he lay handcuffed on the ground, pleading that he could not breathe while Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill at a store.

Chauvin, who was fired along with three other officers who were at the scene, faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted of murder.

An attorney for Floyd’s family welcomed the arrest but said he expected a more serious murder charge and wants the other officers arrested, too.

Prosecutor Mike Freeman said more charges were possible, but authorities “felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator.”

Police were trying to put Floyd in a squad car Monday when he stiffened and fell to the ground, saying he was claustrophobic, a criminal complaint said. Chauvin and Officer Tou Thoa arrived and tried several times to get the struggling Floyd into the car.

Chauvin eventually pulled Floyd out of the car, and the handcuffed Floyd went to the ground facedown. Officer J.K. Kueng held Floyd’s back and Officer Thomas Lane held his legs while Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s head and neck area, the complaint said.

Credit: John Minchillo

Credit: John Minchillo

When Lane asked if Floyd should be rolled onto his side, Chauvin said, “No, staying put is where we got him.” Lane said he was “worried about excited delirium or whatever.”

An autopsy said the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death. It revealed nothing to support strangulation as the cause of death.

There were no other details about intoxicants, and toxicology results can take weeks. In the 911 call that drew police, the caller describes the man suspected of paying with counterfeit money as “awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself.”

After Floyd apparently stopped breathing, Lane again said he wanted to roll Floyd onto his side. Kueng checked for a pulse and said he could not find one, according to the complaint.

Chauvin’s attorney had no comment when reached by The Associated Press.

The prosecutor highlighted the “extraordinary speed” in charging the case four days after Floyd’s death and defended himself against questions about why it did not happen sooner. Freeman said his office needed time to gather evidence, including what he called the “horrible” video recorded by a bystander.

Trump said Friday that he’d spoken to Floyd’s family and “expressed my sorrow.”

He called video of the arrest “just a horrible thing to witness and to watch. It certainly looked like there was no excuse for it.”

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family, asked to take custody of Floyd’s body for an independent autopsy.

»MORE: It needs to stop: Georgia sheriff denounces officers linked to George Floyds death

The doctor who will do the autopsy is Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York City. He was hired to do an autopsy for Eric Garner, a black man who died in 2014 after New York police placed him in a chokehold and he pleaded that he could not breathe.

Friday night coverage

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Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who has been implicated in George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, has been taken into state custody and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Floyd is the African American male suspect who was arrested by local police last weekend and died in their custody.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said anticipates charges on other officers allegedly involved.

Earlier coverage:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday acknowledged the “abject failure” of the response to this week’s violent protests and called for swift justice for police involved in Floyd’s death.

“Minneapolis and St. Paul are on fire. The fire is still smoldering in our streets. The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish unheard,” Walz said, adding. “Now generations of pain is manifesting itself in front of the world — and the world is watching.”

In a late Friday morning news conference, Walz also apologized to CNN, saying he takes total responsibility for the arrest of one of the network's crews Friday as they reported on violent protests in Minneapolis.

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to take action to bring Minneapolis "under control," calling violent protesters "thugs" and saying that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Trump tweeted after protesters torched a Minneapolis police station and destroyed other property, capping three days of violence over Floyd’s death, an incident captured on video.

Trump said he spoke to Walz, a Democrat, and “told him that the military is with him all the way."

Thursday night protests also spread to nearby St. Paul and other cities across the nation.

A police spokesman confirmed late Thursday that staff had evacuated the 3rd Precinct station, the focus of many of the protests, "in the interest of the safety of our personnel" shortly after 10 p.m. Livestream video showed the protesters entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as blazes were set.

Protesters could be seen setting fire to a Minneapolis Police Department jacket.

Trump, who called protesters in Minneapolis "thugs," drew another warning from Twitter for his rhetoric, saying it violated the platform's rules about "glorifying violence." The president's tweet was eventually hidden.

Former President Barack Obama also issued a statement:

A visibly tired and frustrated Frey made his first public appearance of the night at City Hall near 2 a.m. Friday and took responsibility for evacuating the precinct, saying it had become too dangerous for officers there.

As Frey continued, a reporter cut across loudly with a question: “What’s the plan here?”

“With regard to?” Frey responded. Then he added: “There is a lot of pain and anger right now in our city. I understand that ... What we have seen over the past several hours and past couple of nights here in terms of looting is unacceptable.”

Frey defended the city’s lack of engagement with looters — only a handful of arrests across the first two nights of violence — and said, “We are doing absolutely everything that we can to keep the peace.” He said National Guard members were being stationed in locations to help stem looting, including banks, grocery stores and pharmacies.

On Friday morning, the Minnesota State Patrol arrested a CNN television crew as they reported on the unrest in Minneapolis. While live on air, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was handcuffed and led away. A producer and a photojournalist for CNN were also led away in handcuffs.

On Friday morning, CNN said its black reporter covering the melee was arrested, but a white reporter, also on the ground, was not.

CNN President Jeff Zucker said Walz apologized for the arrests, and “accepts full responsibility.”

Jiminez was released Friday morning.

Protests first erupted Tuesday, a day after Floyd's death in a confrontation with police captured on widely seen citizen video. On the video, Floyd can be seen pleading as Chauvin presses his knee against him. As minutes pass, Floyd slowly stops talking and moving.

The 3rd Precinct covers the portion of south Minneapolis where Floyd was arrested.

Walz earlier Thursday activated the National Guard at the Minneapolis mayor's request. The Guard tweeted minutes after the precinct burned that it had activated more than 500 soldiers across the metro area. About two dozen Guard members, armed with assault-style rifles, blocked a street Friday morning near a Target store that has sustained heavy damage by looters.

The Guard said a "key objective" was to make sure fire departments could respond to calls, and said in a follow-up tweet it was "here with the Minneapolis Fire Department" to assist. But no move was made to put out the 3rd Precinct fire. Assistant Fire Chief Bryan Tyner said fire crews could not safely respond to fires at the precinct station and some surrounding buildings.

Earlier Thursday, dozens of businesses across the Twin Cities boarded up their windows and doors in an effort to prevent looting, with Minneapolis-based Target announcing it was temporarily closing two dozen area stores. Minneapolis shut down nearly its entire light-rail system and all bus service through Sunday out of safety concerns.

In St. Paul, clouds of smoke hung in the air as police armed with batons and wearing gas masks and body armor kept a watchful eye on protesters along one of the city's main commercial corridors, where firefighters also sprayed water onto a series of small fires. At one point, officers stood in line in front of a Target, trying to keep out looters, who were also smashing windows of other businesses.

Hundreds of demonstrators returned Thursday to the Minneapolis neighborhood at the center of the violence, where the nighttime scene veered between an angry protest and a street party. At one point, a band playing in a parking lot across from the 3rd Precinct broke into a punk version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."

Nearby, demonstrators carried clothing mannequins from a looted Target and threw them onto a burning car. Later, a building fire erupted nearby.

But elsewhere in Minneapolis, thousands of peaceful demonstrators marched through the streets calling for justice.

Floyd's death has deeply shaken Minneapolis and sparked protests in cities across the U.S. Local leaders have repeatedly urged demonstrators to avoid violence.

"Please stay home. Please do not come here to protest. Please keep the focus on George Floyd, on advancing our movement and on preventing this from ever happening again," tweeted St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who is black.

Erika Atson, 20, was among thousands of people who gathered outside government offices in downtown Minneapolis, where organizers had called for a peaceful protest. Many protesters wore masks because of the coronavirus pandemic, but there were few attempts at social distancing.

Atson, who is black, described seeing her 14- and 11-year-old brothers tackled by Minneapolis police years ago because officers mistakenly presumed the boys had guns. She said she had been at "every single protest" since Floyd's death and worried about raising children who could be vulnerable in police encounters.

"We don't want to be here fighting against anyone. We don't want anyone to be hurt. We don't want to cause any damages," she said. "We just want the police officer to be held accountable."

The group marched peacefully for three hours before another confrontation with police broke out, though details were scarce.

After calling in the Guard, Walz urged widespread changes in the wake of Floyd's death.

"It is time to rebuild. Rebuild the city, rebuild our justice system and rebuild the relationship between law enforcement and those they're charged to protect," Walz said.

Much of the Minneapolis violence occurred in the Longfellow neighborhood, where protesters converged on the precinct station of the police who arrested Floyd. In a strip mall across the street from the 3rd Precinct station, the windows in nearly every business had been smashed, from the large Target department store at one end to the Planet Fitness gym at the other. Only the 24-hour laundromat appeared to have escaped unscathed.

"WHY US?" demanded a large expanse of red graffiti scrawled on the wall of the Target. A Wendy's restaurant across the street was charred almost beyond recognition.

Among the casualties of the overnight fires: a six-story building under construction that was to provide nearly 200 apartments of affordable housing.

"We're burning our own neighborhood," said a distraught Deona Brown, a 24-year-old woman standing with a friend outside the precinct station, where a small group of protesters were shouting at a dozen or so stone-faced police officers in riot gear. "This is where we live, where we shop, and they destroyed it." No officers could be seen beyond the station.

"What that cop did was wrong, but I'm scared now," Brown said.

Others in the crowd saw something different in the wreckage.

Protesters destroyed property "because the system is broken," said a young man who identified himself only by his nickname, Cash, and who said he had been in the streets during the violence. He dismissed the idea that the destruction would hurt residents of the largely black neighborhood.

"They're making money off of us," he said angrily of the owners of the destroyed stores. He laughed when asked if he had joined in the looting or violence. "I didn't break anything."

The protests that began Wednesday night and extended into Thursday were more violent than Tuesday's, which included skirmishes between officers and protesters but no widespread property damage.

Protests have also spread to other U.S. cities. In New York City, protesters defied New York's coronavirus prohibition on public gatherings Thursday, clashing with police, while demonstrators blocked traffic in downtown Denver and downtown Columbus. A day earlier, demonstrators had taken to the streets in Los Angeles and Memphis.

Amid the violence in Minneapolis, a man was found fatally shot Wednesday night near a pawn shop, possibly by the owner, authorities said.

Fire crews responded to about 30 intentionally set blazes on Wednesday, and multiple fire trucks were damaged by rocks and other projectiles, the fire department said. No one was hurt by the blazes.

The city on Thursday released a transcript of the 911 call that brought police to the grocery store where Floyd was arrested. The caller described someone paying with a counterfeit bill, with workers rushing outside to find the man sitting on a van. The caller described the man as "awfully drunk and he's not in control of himself." Asked by the 911 operator whether the man was "under the influence of something," the caller said: "Something like that, yes. He is not acting right." Police said Floyd matched the caller's description of the suspect.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI in Minneapolis said Thursday they were conducting "a robust criminal investigation" into the death. Trump has said he had asked an investigation to be expedited.

The FBI is also investigating whether Floyd's civil rights were violated.

Chauvin, the officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck, was fired Tuesday with three other officers involved in the arrest. The next day, the mayor called for Chauvin to be criminally charged. He also appealed for the activation of the National Guard.

Tim Darnell and Kelcie Willis of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.