Protests in the United States against the death of an African-American man at the hands of the police

Hundreds of demonstrators staged Sunday night protests in a suburb of Minneapolis, the US city of the trial of a policeman accused of the death of George Floyd, after a black man was killed by police.

Several hundred people crowded in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Station, northwest of Minneapolis. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades at themobserved an AFP video journalist at the scene.

At around midnight (0500 GMT), the National Guard was deployed to the scene, and the mayor of Brooklyn Center said he would “be issuing a curfew order shortly.”

Daunte Wright’s mother, a 20-year-old African American, told the crowd that her son called her to tell him that the police had ordered him to stop his vehicle., according to local media.

Katie Wright said she heard police tell her son to drop the phone and then one of the officers cut the call.. Soon after, his son’s girlfriend told him that her son had been killed.

The Minnesota Criminal Affairs Bureau confirmed to AFP that it was “investigating” an agent’s involvement in a Brooklyn Center shooting, but declined to identify the victim.

According to a statement from the Brooklyn Center Police Department, officers have ordered the driver of a vehicle to be arrested for traffic violations. When they found out he had an outstanding arrest warrant, they tried to arrest him.

The driver returned to his vehicle and one of the officers fired his firearm, hitting the driver, who died at the scene.

A passenger in the car sustained “injuries” without endangering her life and was taken to a local hospital.According to the statement, he did not identify the woman.

About two hundred people gathered at the Brooklyn Center on Sunday night and were greeted by police in riot gear.

Photos of the rally showed men jumping over the windshield of a police van. According to the newspaper Star Tribune, security forces fired non-lethal ammunition in an attempt to disperse the protesters.

When the police presence was reduced after an hour, the crowd lit candles and wrote chalk messages on the street: “Justice for Daunte Wright“.

Brooklyn Mayor Mike Elliott called the shooting “tragic.”

“We call on the protesters to stay peacefulHe wrote on Twitter. “Peaceful protesters are not fought harshly.”

But clashes resumed soon after, when another group of hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Brooklyn Center police headquarters and were greeted with tear gas and stun grenades.

The shooting takes place as the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer accused of the death of George Floyd, takes place in Minneapolis., an African-American last May in this city.

Floyd’s death sparked protests across the United States against racism and police brutality.

With information from AFP

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