BLM Protesters March From 4th Precinct To City Hall
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After a night of violence that left five people shot near the 4th Precinct occupation, protesters are marching to Minneapolis City Hall in a show of solidarity.
Hundreds of protesters are making their way down Plymouth Avenue North Tuesday afternoon, all the way across I-94 and into downtown Minneapolis to City Hall -- a total distance of about three miles.
Earlier in the day, students at several Minneapolis high schools staged a walkout, joining the protests at the 4th Precinct, and the ensuing march.
PHOTOS: Black Lives Matter Marches To City Hall -- Nov. 24, 2015
By the time protesters reached City Hall, the building was on lockdown. Protesters continued the rally outside the building for several hours before marching over to the federal office building a block away.
By around 5:30 p.m., protesters began the march back to the 4th Precinct.
Police say five people were shot late Monday night, less than a block away from the protests by three masked men. Witnesses say the men were white supremacists, who had been posting threats on social media and had been to the protests at the 4th Precinct before.
By Tuesday afternoon, two of the alleged shooters are in police custody.
The demonstration is affecting traffic downtown, and Metro Transit says light rail trains will be running late Tuesday evening.
Activists from the group Black Lives Matter organized a protest around the precinct after the shooting of 24-year-old Jamar Clark in north Minneapolis in the early morning of Nov. 15. Police responded to a domestic violence call that night, and said they found Clark interfering with paramedics attempts to help a victim.
Law enforcement authorities said there was a scuffle between Clark and the officers, and that Clark reached for an officer's gun before he was shot in the head. Protesters and witnesses dispute that claim, saying Clark was handcuffed when officers shot him.
Protesters have vowed to stay camped outside of the Minneapolis Police's 4th Precinct until video footage from the night of the shooting is released. Law enforcement authorities and city leaders have said doing so would harm the integrity of the investigation into the incident, and could taint witness testimony.
