Protesters gather near Minneapolis following fatal officer-involved shooting

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on Sunday night to protest the fatal officer-involved shooting of a Black man earlier in the day during a traffic stop.

The motorist was identified by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and relatives as 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Outside of the Brooklyn Center Police Department headquarters, people chanted Wright's name, and some covered the building's sign with graffiti. Officers in riot gear fired a chemical irritant and rubber bullets at the crowd, hitting at least two people and leaving one bleeding from the head, a witness told Reuters. Several people were also seen looting at a nearby Walmart and shopping mall, the Star Tribune reports, and National Guard troops — already in Minneapolis for the Derek Chauvin trial — were dispatched.

The Brooklyn Center Police Department released a statement saying a motorist was pulled over shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon for a traffic violation. The officers found that the driver had an outstanding arrest warrant, the police department said, and while trying to arrest him, the man got back into his car. One of the officers then shot the motorist, who died after driving several blocks and hitting another vehicle. The department said the officers involved were wearing body cameras that captured the incident.

Wright's mother, Katie Wright, told reporters her son called to let her know he was being pulled over for having air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror, which is illegal in Minnesota, Reuters reports.

Brooklyn Center is a Minneapolis suburb, about 10 miles from where George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, was killed last May while being arrested. Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, is now on trial, charged with murder and manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd's neck while he was on the ground and handcuffed.

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