BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (NewsNation Now) — For a fourth straight night, protests turned violent overnight in Minnesota as police and demonstrators clashed in Brooklyn Center. However, arrests were about a quarter of what was reported the night before.
Outside the police building, groups of demonstrators lit fireworks and threw projectiles over a fence at police officers. Those officers fired tear gas and flash-bang rounds to try to break up the crowd.
Minnesota State Patrol Colonel Matt Langer said 24 people were arrested Wednesday, but for the second night in a row there were no reports of burglaries or looting. A state website says 79 people were arrested Tuesday.
This comes the same day Minnesota prosecutors charged former officer Kim Potter, 48, with second degree manslaughter for shooting and killing Daunte Wright, 20, Sunday.
Brooklyn Center police say it was an accident. Wright, who is Black, was pulled over Sunday, and officers attempted to arrest him for an outstanding warrant. Potter is seen on body camera video firing her gun at Wright as he struggled with police, but the police chief at the time said she meant to fire her taser.
That chief, Tim Gannon, and Potter resigned Tuesday.
Despite the charge Potter now faces, the crowd yelled obscenities at officers Wednesday night as tensions remain high. One protestor brought a pig head on a stick with a police hat on it. Others yelled “I smell bacon.”
This all takes place just miles away from Derek Chauvin’s trial. The former Minneapolis police officer is accused of murdering George Floyd in May 2020 when Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Potter, a 26-year department veteran, was taken into custody by agents of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at the agency’s office in nearby St. Paul, authorities said.
She was booked into Hennepin County jail on a charge of second-degree manslaughter but released hours later after posting $100,000 bond, according to jail records. Her first court appearance was set for Thursday at 1:30 p.m.