Tensions remained strong on Sunday in northern Minneapolis, while state investigators pursued an intensive investigation into the death of a 31-year-old black man killed by police Saturday night.

Police said the man, identified by relatives of Thurman Blevins, fired a handgun into the air and into the ground. But some witnesses said that he only carried a bottle or a cup while he was fleeing the police during a brief, on-foot chase.

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey pledged a full, fair and swift investigation, claiming that the body camera images worn by the police officers involved could help answer some of these questions. Activists called for the immediate release of the video, but officials said it could happen.

Frey canceled his March plans in the Pride Parade, saying he wanted to focus on the community as a result of the shooting, with Arradondo.

The demonstrators were ready to assemble at 3 pm On Sunday outside the fourth district police station at 1925 Plymouth Av., The site of similar actions following the deadly shooting of November 2015 by Jamar Clark police. Activists affiliated with a number of groups also briefly interrupted the Pride Parade in downtown Minneapolis.

Community members have also scheduled a wake for 19 hours. Sunday near the shooting site.

The agents involved have not yet been identified. According to departmental policy, any officer involved in a critical incident must be placed on paid administrative leave until the shooting investigation is complete.

A separate internal investigation will examine whether the department's protocols were followed during the incident, deciding whether officers should be dismissed or disciplined.

A few hours after Blevins' death, a crowd of several hundred people had gathered near the corner of N. 48th and Camden avenues. Some sang and prayed. Others strongly questioned the presence of a line of uniformed policemen crossing the intersection. Bottles of water were distributed on both sides of the crime scene band during a soft night.

Leslie Badue, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, and others called for the immediate release of any body camera fired from the shooting, but police officials said they gave up any evidence at the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Minnesota.

Blevins was shot dead Saturday afternoon by police who fired back at a man who was firing a handgun in the air and ground in the 4700 block of Bryant Avenue N. He died where he was shot between Aldrich and Bryant N.

As questions remained unanswered, much of the conversation revolved around allegations of police brutality and racial problems that inflamed other US cities as a result of police shootings.

Sam Sanchez, an organizer of the Coalition of Twin Cities 4 Justice 4 Jamar, said that the promises of reform of Arradondo sounded hollow after another shot of police.

"They want us to believe that something has changed, but this is not the case," he said, highlighting several recent controversies surrounding the department, including a preliminary report issued earlier this month saying that municipal police officers led paramedics to put people to sleep. using the powerful tranquilizer ketamine. "People are numb and [police] have a good public relations campaign, "he said.

Survivors Lead, an anti-violence group, also called for changes.

"We must confront and dismantle our country's white supremacist culture wherever it exists, especially when it is perpetuated by systems designed to oppress historically marginalized communities," the group said in a statement released on Sunday. .

In a statement issued early Sunday, Frey called Blevins a "victim" in what he described as a "tragedy".

"In the end, we know that no matter what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting, we know for sure that the result is a tragedy," he wrote. "For all those who suffer tonight: I'm sorry."

A continuous problem

Blevins becomes the 30th person killed by officers since the year 2000 in Minneapolis, according to a Star Tribune database. More than half of those who shot were black.

While the shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer from St. Anthony in July 2016 attracted the most attention, Clark's death in 2015 also inspired widespread protests. In July 2017, Justine Ruszczk Damond, who was white, was shot and fatally shot by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in the south of Minneapolis, a death that also provoked numerous demonstrations; Noor was charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter.

Nationwide, the police murder of 17-year-old Antwon Rose in Pittsburgh last week was the most recent of these deaths triggering intense protests.

On Sunday morning, Blevins' death had not yet been recorded in a database of deadly police shootings maintained by the Washington Post. The national account is 495, dated June 20th.

The Blevins shootout came just days after the BCA broadcast footage of the city's latest police shootings, in which an 18-year-old man was wounded after slipping a knife into an interrogation room. of the police.

The police union remained silent about this in the hours following the incident. A message to President Bob Kroll was not immediately delivered Sunday.

Accounts disagree

In the hours that followed the shooting, competing stories of the incident emerged.

According to police, just before 5:30 pm, at least two people called 911 to report that a man walking in the 4700 block of Bryant Avenue N. was firing a 9mm handgun in silver in the air and in the ground. The appellants each provided a detailed description of the suspect, which corresponds to Blevins, the police said.

But several witnesses said that Blevins was not armed and that he ran after the police tried to tease him. He was running from the police when he was shot, witnesses said.

Ivan Deloya, 16, said he was watching the scene unfold from his front yard. He said that he had been chatting with Blevins, whom he had known for "a few years" before the shooting, but that Blevins had been distracted when he started arguing with his girlfriend. A few minutes later, he says he saw Blevins again, this time heading west on the 48th, squeezing a bottle in one hand, with two police officers chasing him. The three characters disappeared in an alley between Aldrich and Bryant, he says.

"I saw him running as fast as he could, shouting," I do not have a gun, "Deloya said. "He had only one bottle in his hands."

He recalled recalling hearing about a dozen shots fired.

US Representative Keith Ellison, D-Mnn., Took on Twitter on Saturday night to call for answers, while expressing his hope that the body camera's images "will bring additional clarity in the coming days".

"Our community has too often been confronted with this trauma," wrote the MP, who briefly stopped Saturday night at the scene.

On Saturday night, Deputy Chief of Police Art Knight passed through the crowd, trying to answer the questions of the upset residents. Several people have pressed for the way the department intends to restore public confidence without improving accountability.

"If you are going to be different, do the different," said Mel Reeves, a local human rights activist for a long time.

"Are all cops perfect?" Replied Knight, pointing out that three officers were fired this year for misconduct. "We have cops who should not be cops, I'll be the first to tell you."

Later, he said that he hoped that Minneapolis will follow the example of other departments in the country by quickly broadcasting bodycam videos.

"I would like this information to come out," he told a reporter. "We have a lot of narration out there that we would like to clarify."

A recent Star Tribune analysis revealed that the use of force by Minneapolis officers has fallen by 50% over the last decade, a dramatic decline that officials attribute to better training on de-escalation techniques . everyone, not just the officers.

The instances of officers displaying or firing their service weapons were statistically scarce, the analysis showed.