People came out on the streets at Brooklyn Centre protesting the killing of Daunte Wright, a young black man in Minneapolis on April 12, 2021. A 20 year old black man was shot at by the police during a traffic stop. The protest was reportedly disrupted by the police. The New York Times reported, ‘outside of the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Sunday night, smoke billowed into the air as a line of police officers fired rubber bullets and chemical agents at protesters, some of whom lobbed rocks, bags of garbage and water bottles at the police.’
The mayor of Brooklyn Centre, Mike Elliot ordered a curfew till 6 am.
Also read: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Passed by the House Lawmakers
Police have fired smoke canisters and some kind of chemical agent at protesters in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, after the shooting of #DaunteWright. pic.twitter.com/dbIl0pFGde
— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) April 12, 2021
This shooting in Minneapolis just a few days before the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who has been charged with murdering George Floyd refreshes the memories of Black Lives Matter protests. Floyd’s death is the most recent incident of racially driven police brutality and has once again brought light to the bias of police force against people of African descent in the United States. Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Reportedly, Mr. Wright’s car was pulled over by the police for violation of rules. The police version of the story is that the police found out he had a warrant out for his arrest. As the police tried to detain the man, he stepped back into his car, at which point an officer shot him.
Also read: Black Lives Matter: Protests across US over the murder of George Floyd
However, the mother of Mr. Wright, Katie Wright, has a version. Daute Wright according to his mother called his mother and said ‘they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rear view mirror,’ and he was driving with his girlfriend.
