UPDATE - US Police Use Force To Push Back Rioters As Minnesota Protests Enter 3rd Straight Night

(@FahadShabbir)

UPDATE - US Police Use Force to Push Back Rioters as Minnesota Protests Enter 3rd Straight Night

BROOKLYN CENTER (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2021) ROOKLYN CENTER, United States, April 14 (Sputnik) - The third night of protests in the US state of Minnesota saw police officers use force to disperse rioters angered by the fatal shooting of 20-year-old black man Daunte Wright, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The law enforcement officers used chemical reagents and flashbangs to push back hundreds of Black Lives Matter activists who gathered around the Brooklyn Center police department to demand justice for a police officer suspected of killing Wright. The raging protesters showed resistance to a rapid advance of law enforcement officers in full riot gear propped up by National Guard units and armored vehicles.

Pepper spray and tear gas were also deployed by the police to remove protesters from areas adjacent to a fenced compound, with flashbangs exploding in the middle of the crowd and baton-wielding servicemen occasionally rushing at remaining pockets of resistance.

According to the correspondent, at least one female activist was detained. In contrast to previous two mutinous nights, no looting was seen near the area of protests.

Protesters threw various objects, mainly plastic bottles of water and firecrackers, and verbally attacked police officers who urged the crowd for multiple times to disperse and warned them of consequences of not obeying a curfew.

Protests came as a response to Wright's death. He was shot dead during a traffic stop on Sunday by police officer Kim Potter, who claims to have accidentally drawn and discharged a handgun instead of a taser.

Potter and the Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon resigned on Tuesday. Protesters' main demand is to charge Potter with murder and place her in custody.

"The police officer is yet to be charged. I am here to make sure that someone in held accountable for the loss of life," one protester told Sputnik.

"She doesn't just resign, she needs to be fired. She can't get her pension. She needs to be in jail. If it were a regular person she or he would be in jail, especially if this were a black man," another protester said.

Braving chilling temperatures with occasional snowfalls several hundreds marched from the police precinct to a nearby FBI building and back for a showdown with law enforcement officers. The column was spearheaded by a colourful group of native Americans who danced through most of the way giving the procession an unexpected carnival gusto.

Brooklyn Center borders the city of Minneapolis where the in-custody death of another African American, George Floyd, sparked a nationwide campaign against racially motivated police brutality. Protests were sometimes marred with violence and looting and some locals are wary of a looming verdict in the trial of Floyd's suspected killer, former police officer Derek Chauvin.

"They may get pissed off and rise again or get happy and still rise. You never know," one of them told Sputnik.