The Minnesota National Guard was deployed in Brooklyn Center after residents gathered to protest the police shooting of a 20-year-old Black man. As reported by REVOLT, police shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday evening (April 11). Moments later, he crashed into another car and passed away.
According to CNN, hundreds of people gathered to protest the shooting in the Minneapolis suburb, 10 miles away from where Derek Chauvin is on trial for the death of George Floyd. Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, spoke to the crowd and WCCO and said her son called her when he got pulled over by police.
“He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror,” she said tearfully. “A minute later, I called and his girlfriend answered, which was the passenger in the car, and said that he’d been shot.”
“He didn’t deserve to be shot and killed like this,” she added.
Police say officers were wearing their body-worn cameras and that footage of the shooting exists, but it has not yet been released to the public. According to authorities, police were attempting to take Daunte into custody after discovering he had outstanding warrants. When he got back into his vehicle, police shot him. He then drove several blocks before fatally hitting another car.
Protesters marched toward the Brooklyn Center Police Department and demanded justice for Daunte on Sunday night. Authorities say rocks and other objects were thrown at the department building and there were reports of shots being fired. The protest was declared an unlawful assembly and people were told to leave the area by 9:30 p.m. local time. State authorities deployed the Minnesota National Guard and the city was under curfew until 6 a.m. this morning.
According to the Brooklyn Center police chief, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting.