3 Men in Custody After Shooting at Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Protest
Minneapolis police arrested two men Tuesday morning, the New York Times reports, in connection with a shooting late Monday during a Black Lives Matter demonstration protesting the police shooting of Jamar Clark. Five people were injured.
One suspect suspect is a 23-year-old white man; the other a 32-year-old Hispanic man. Neither was identified, and police are still looking for a third suspect.
Reports earlier on Tuesday indicated that at least two of the three suspects in the shooting are affiliated with the website 4chan, and organizers said that unfamiliar men had been harassing the protestors since at least Friday.
Miski Noor, an organizer at the Minneapolis arm of Black Lives Matter, said the shooting happened as demonstrators were escorting three masked men who had been behaving suspiciously away from the site of the rally. When they reached a dark area, the men turned around and fired on the demonstrators before fleeing, Ms. Noor said.
Ms. Noor said that groups of men had been showing up to the demonstrations and “acting shady” since Friday. Witnesses reported that the men were filming protesters and refusing to answer questions about why they were there, she said. In response, the group put together a safety committee to watch for potential agitators and escort them away as a preventive measure, she said.
Minneapolis police have refused to release footage of Jamar Clark’s shooting death, denying at least one FOIA request today.
Update, 8:25 p.m. – The Hispanic suspect has been released after questioning, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. In a statement, police said: “The investigation has revealed that the man arrested in South Minneapolis in his car this afternoon was not at the shooting scene.”
Police also said two other men—both white, one 26 and the other 21—turned themselves in this afternoon.
Photos via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.