Five people were shot on Monday night (November 24) near the site of a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis.
Police say they are searching for three white males in connection with the incident, which left five people hospitalised with non life-threatening injuries and took place a block away from a Black Lives Matter demonstration in support of Jamal Clark, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on November 15.
One witness to the attack, Oluchi Omeoga, told AP that there were three strangers in the crowdwearing masks and bulletproof vests. Another, Black Lives Matter representative Miski Noor, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that a group of white supremacists had “opened fire on about six protesters”, hitting five of them.
Black Lives Matter protesters have been staging a sit-in at the site in North Minneapolis since Jamal Clark’s shooting on November 15, with activists demanding the release of video footage of the incident. Police claim that Clark was interfering with paramedics who were trying to help a victim of assault, but witnesses to the shooting allege that Clark was handcuffed, indicating an execution-style death.
“One of the cops had his knee in his back and the other cop was kind of straddling him in an awkward type position,” Teto Wilson told CNN. “But they had complete control of him. I didn’t see him fighting, I didn’t seem him resisting. I saw a still body laying on the ground restrained. Like I said, maybe about a minute after that, that’s when the shot went off. There was no reason to shoot him.”
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says that it has footage of the incident from many angles, all of which prove inconclusive. It also says that releasing the footage now would taint the investigation.
