A man has been shot dead near the scene of protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody on Monday.
The man was found lying on the pavement at around 9.25pm with a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital, where he later died. A suspect has been arrested.
At a press conference around midnight, a spokesperson confirmed the police were investigating the theory that he was killed by a pawn shop owner who suspected him of looting his store, but said they were “in the infancy of this investigation”.
A video was being shared widely on social media purporting to show the aftermath of the incident, including a man on the ground receiving CPR from a police officer. The Independent was not immediately able to verify the footage.
Thousands of people took part in Wednesday night’s protests, with police and citizens facing off across barricades. The police deployed rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades, some of which members of the crowd threw back.
Looting then broke out, with footage showing people breaking into a Target store and leaving with carts full of merchandise.
The city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, appealed for calm on social media, urging Minneapolis’s citizens not to “let tragedy beget more tragedy”, and Governor Tim Walz also issued a warning.
“The situation near Lake Street and Hiawatha in Minneapolis has evolved into an extremely dangerous situation,” Walz wrote on Twitter. “For everyone’s safety, please leave the area and allow firefighters and paramedics to get to the scene.”
With the clashes still simmering into the night, the police spokesperson called the protests “heartbreaking”.
“Tonight was a different night of protesting than it was just the night before,” he told the assembled media.
Mr Floyd, who was 46, died on Monday night after he was pulled from his car by four police officers, one of whom knelt on his neck for several minutes while he repeatedly shouted “I can’t breathe”. The incident was filmed by onlookers, and the footage quickly went viral.
The four police officers involved have been terminated by the city’s authorities, and Mayor Frey has called for the one who had his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck to be arrested.
“Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” he said on Wednesday. “If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now. And I cannot come up with a good answer to that.”
