A police station in Minnesota was in flames during the third day of protests organized by angry residents of St. Paul and Minneapolis who protested the gruesome murder of a Black man by a white cop.
The police station which had been abandoned by the police caught fire after a lot of protesters pushed through barriers around the station, vandalising windows and chanting slogans. As the building went up in flames, the protest witnessed a much larger crowd.
The protesters were protesting the gruesome murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American, who died after he was arrested on Monday by Minneapolis police on suspicion of using a fake banknote.
He was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by the cop with a witness video revealing a police officer pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck.
The footage showed Floyd telling the cops that he couldn’t breathe until he became silent and limp. He was later pronounced dead.
Hundreds of protesters gathered and started marching in Minneapolis yesterday afternoon with many of them putting on masks to protect themselves against the novel coronavirus. In St. Paul, police revealed that there was ongoing looting as many cases of fire were reported.
A very large crowd demonstrated later in the evening outside the city’s Third Precinct.
A statement issued by the police said: “Shortly after 10:00 pm tonight, in the interest of the safety of our personnel, the Minneapolis Police Department evacuated the 3rd Precinct of its staff.”
