Currents News Staff
For a second night in a row, Minnesotans took to the streets over the death of one of their own: George Floyd.
The protests turned dangerous overnight with fires burning on the streets. Local firefighters rushed to extinguish a billowing fire at an AutoZone shop.
Some took advantage of the unrest, looting a local Target and clashing in the streets with police.
“Tonight was a different night of protesting than it was just the night before,” one police officer said.
Flash bangs and fireworks rang out on the streets well into the night, emblematic of a pain felt in this community and beyond over how in just a matter of minutes the 46-year-old father of two went from pleading for help, to what eventually became an eternal silence.
“I’m gonna hear my man say this, ‘I can’t breathe. I want my momma,’ and I’m coming to find out this man died two years on the day that his mom died?” asked Donald Williams, a witness. “I’m a momma’s boy bro, like that hurts me deep down inside bro, and like, something needs to be done. Something needs to be done.”
This witness says none of the officers responded to his pleas to let up at the scene. Jacob Frey, Mayor of Minneapolis, is calling for charges to be filed.
“i’ve been asking myself that core underlying question, ‘Why is the officer that killed George Floyd not in jail right now?’ And I can’t answer that question.”
Newly released records from the Minneapolis Fire Department show– when medics got to the scene they were working on a quote “unresponsive, pulseless male.”
Floyd was declared dead later at a nearby hospital.
The circumstances that led to the encounter is among what investigators are now trying to understand, including the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
All of it circles the question of whether the four officers involved will face more than just being fired: criminal charges.
That includes officer Derek Chauvin, the man seen on video restraining Floyd with his knee, according to his attorney.
The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis says the officers are cooperating with the investigation.
The Floyd family wants murder charges to be filed.
“It hurts me that I’m crying on tv,” said his brother Rodney. “Another black family going through this nonsense.”
And within the community, a pain persists.
“As a black community, as America, we’re a family,” said Donald, “And we’ve gotta make a change bro.”