Protests over death of George Floyd continue to roil Minneapolis, and beyond

Top federal law enforcement officials in the Minneapolis area said Thursday that they “are conducting a robust criminal investigation” into Floyd’s death, probing whether any of the former police officers involved had violated federal law.

“The Department of Justice has made the investigation a top priority and has assigned experienced prosecutors and FBI criminal investigators to the matter,” Erica MacDonald, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, and Rainer Drolshagen, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Minneapolis field office, said in a joint statement.

President Trump also weighed in on a federal probe, writing Wednesday on Twitter that he had asked the Justice Department and FBI to investigate Floyd’s “very sad and tragic death.”

The FBI investigation will incorporate witness statements and other evidence before the U.S. attorney’s office decides whether to pursue federal charges. Civil rights charges require clearing a high bar, because prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that officers in such cases willfully moved to deprive someone of their constitutional rights.

Stephen Jackson, who spent 14 seasons in the NBA, said in emotional social media posts and interviews that George Floyd “was my brother” and that they called each other “Twin.”

“Everybody know me and Floyd called each other ‘Twin,’ ” Jackson said in an Instagram video, adding: “My boy was doing what he was supposed to do, man, and y’all go kill my brother, man.”

Jackson is four years younger than Floyd, but both grew up in the Houston area. Jackson said on Thursday’s “Today” show that video of Floyd’s final moments “just destroyed me. I haven’t been the same since I’ve seen it.”

After protests in Minneapolis intensified, Jackson said that wasn’t how Floyd would want to be remembered. “He would be happy that people were fighting for him,” he said, “but that’s not the way he’d want to do it. He’d want the people responsible for his death penalized. … [He] would want everybody standing together fighting for justice.”

The University of Minnesota says it is reducing ties with the Minneapolis Police Department after George Floyd’s death while in the custody of officers.

President Joan Gabel said in a letter to the university community that the school would no longer contract with the police department to receive law enforcement support for football games, concerts and other large events, or for specialized services — such as K-9 explosive-detection units — at campus events.

“Our hearts are broken after watching the appalling video capturing the actions of Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers against George Floyd leading to his tragic death,” Gabel wrote. “As a community, we are outraged and grief-stricken. I do not have the words to fully express my pain and anger and I know that many in our community share those feelings, but also fear for their own safety. This will not stand.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people poured into the streets here Wednesday for a second night of protests, which turned chaotic as police fired rubber bullets from a rooftop, several buildings caught fire, and one person was shot and killed by a store owner.

The evening started with peaceful protests that descended into disarray and looting as the night wore on. A group of officers stood in front of a nearby precinct and tried to disrupt the crowd with flash bang grenades and rubber bullets. At times, the tear gas was so thick, it wafted down neighborhood streets where people standing in their front yards were coughing and wiping at their eyes.

By 10 p.m., an Auto Zone had caught fire. Soon, other fires erupted, including a massive blaze at a construction site. Meanwhile, one person was shot by a pawn shop owner and died at a hospital, police told the Star Tribune, as looters ransacked a Target, Foot Locker and nearby small businesses.

The chaos that followed Wednesday’s demonstrations prompted state and local officials to plea for peace

“Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy,” Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said in a late-night statement. The mayor requested help from the state’s National Guard amid a second night of disruption.

His calls for calm echoed those of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose district covers some of the affected area.

“Violence only begets violence,” she tweeted, urging peaceful protest. “More force is only going to lead to more lives lost and more devastation.”

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told local media the majority of the protesters remained peaceful, but told Minnesota Public Radio later that night that the display had been “hijacked” by some protesters and those looting and vandalizing businesses.

After police faced stinging criticism for heavy-handed tactics deployed during the first night of protests, critics like City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison were among those who expressed disappointment at the department’s failure to maintain public safety late Wednesday.

“We always do this — we create a barrier, put the police out there, put them in a line, put face masks, depersonalize them, make them look as scary as possible and we always get this result, and then we want to point the finger at community members,” Ellison told MPR Thursday.

The chaotic scenes followed the death of 46-year-old George Floyd on Monday, which came after a white officer pinned the handcuffed father of two to the pavement outside of a market where employees had called police about a counterfeit bill. The police encounter was caught on a viral video that has sparked national outrage and inflamed existing tensions in a community where officers have long been accused of racism.

In the suburb of Oakdale, hundreds of protesters on Wednesday gathered outside the home of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was captured on the video with his knee on Floyd’s neck. According to the Star Tribune, red paint was poured onto Chauvin’s driveway, and the word “killer” was written on the garage door.

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo swiftly fired Chauvin after Floyd’s death, along with the three other involved officers, identified by authorities Wednesday as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng. President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he had asked the FBI, which is investigating the death, to expedite its work, adding that “Justice will be served!”

But the response from authorities has done little to assuage a community that says it has long suffered undue treatment by local officers and has called for the officers’ arrests.