Police Spar With Protesters for 6th Straight Night: Live Updates

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested on Friday and charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, but his arrest was not enough to stem the spread of protests that have continued throughout the country on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday night, protests continued to rage in most major cities, and the National Guard had been activated in at least 15 states and Washington, D.C.

Below is everything we know about the unfolding story of George Floyd’s death and its aftermath across the country.

Trump hints that outside forces were to blame for chaos on Sunday

As the dust settled on the latest round of protests — interspersed with vandalism, looting, and aggressive police action — President Trump (parroting his friend Newt Gingrich) suggested that the people who took to the streets had been paid to do so.

The idea that there are puppet masters controlling mass protest has a long history on the right, and a considerable history within this administration; Trump has previously invoked George Soros in conspiracy theories involving immigration, and Soros’s name has been bandied about freely on the right during the last few days of protests. (Authorities in Minnesota went the other way over the weekend, blaming right-wing outside agitators for unrest; the evidence for their claim is unclear.)

Trump’s typically bellicose comments on Twitter belie his generally hesitant response to the unfolding conflict. The Washington Post reports that the president’s team decided that he should not address the nation in recent days because “he had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce yet.” And while Trump tweeted violent threats about the sometimes tumultuous protests that have taken place across from the White House at Lafayette Park, the reaction within the building seemed to be more one of fear than defiance. The New York Times reports that on Friday, Trump was moved to an underground bunker that has been used during terrorist incidents. And on Sunday night, the White House turned off all exterior lighting, as if trying to hide from the encroaching chaos.

Fires burned throughout central D.C. on Sunday night

A fire in the basement of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church — a few blocks north of the White House — was put out shortly after 11 p.m. A fire department spokesperson told the Washington Post that the fire did not do much damage to the church: “I guess God was on its side. It didn’t seem to have spread very much.”

In Lafayette Square, between the church and the White House, protesters continued to clash with police as the 11 p.m. curfew came and went.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, offered a symbol of the president’s leadership at this time.

The AFL-CIO building in D.C. was reportedly set on fire

The headquarters of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the country’s largest federation of unions, was set partially on fire.

Police rush protesters in Manhattan

After protesters walked from Brooklyn, taking over car lanes of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, police attacked protesters in lower Manhattan.

For protesters who remained in Brooklyn, police continued to escalate violence outside of Barclays Center. Protesters dispersed around 12:30 a.m.

In perhaps the most concerning threat of violence all weekend, a police officer appeared to pull his weapon on protesters outside the Strand bookstore in Manhattan:

Mayor de Blasio’s daughter was arrested on Saturday night

The Sergeant’s Benevolent Association — the largest NYPD union — tweeted out the personal information of Chiara de Blasio detailed on her arrest report. Twitter eventually deleted the tweet for violating its rules.

Protesters shut down the Manhattan Bridge

After protesters in Brooklyn attempted on Saturday to shut down the car lanes of the Manhattan Bridge, they succeeded on Sunday night:

Shortly after, protesters also accessed the car lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge.

A Police SUV drove into protesters in Los Angeles

In an echo of the appalling video of NYPD vehicles plowing into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn, in Los Angeles on Sunday, a Los Angeles Police Department SUV drove into a small group of protesters, nearly running one man over before reversing at a high speed and leaving the scene.

A terrifying scene on I-35 in Minneapolis

Protesters shut down the highway near the University of Minnesota on Sunday, eventually taking over both of the interstate’s lanes. Around 5:45 p.m. central time, a tanker trunk nearly plowed into the crowd, as demonstrators scattered. The truck appeared to stop before anyone was hit, and the driver was arrested shortly after the incident.

According to the Star-Tribune, authorities are investigating the incident as a criminal matter. State public safety commissioner John Harrington stated that the truck “was on the freeway already as we were closing the freeway,” and that the vehicle did not appear to go around any barricades.

Cincinnati police hung a Blue Lives Matter flag

Cincinnati police confirmed that officers hung a Blue Lives Matter, or thin blue line, flag over Hamilton County Justice Center on Sunday, claiming that their American flag had been stolen.

Cities shut down essential pandemic services amid protest

Despite the necessity of economic support and COVID-19 testing, major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles have suspended aid programs and free testing, citing unrest. Non-profits and community groups, like the Sheridan Story in Minnesota, have helped pick up the slack.

A death in Omaha

On Saturday night, a black protester was shot and killed by a white bar owner in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Police have identified the victim as 22-year-old James Scurlock; authorities have not identified the suspect, though they did announce that an investigation into the homicide was under way.

“His daughter lost a father,” Scurlock’s father, also named James Scurlock, said on Sunday. “All because he decided to protest against racism. There’s a lot of speculation and rumors about how this happened. I don’t really care to be honest. My family wants closure and peace.”

Joe Biden appeared at a protest in Wilmington

On Sunday, former Vice-president Joe Biden made an appearance at a demonstration in Wilmington, Delaware — only his second public sighting since the pandemic began.

Trump reportedly retreated to White House bunker amid protests on Friday

According to the New York Times, as protesters demonstrated outside the White House on Friday, Secret Service rushed the president to an underground bunker that has previously been used for terrorist attacks.

The reported action was an extreme example of the president’s absence this week: Aside from tweets attacking the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis and media coverage of the protests, Trump stayed mostly silent on the matter. And as the Washington Post reported, it was a calculated silence:

Trump and some of his advisers calculated that he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing to say, according to a senior administration official. He had no tangible policy or action to announce, nor did he feel an urgent motivation to try to bring people together.

Sunday protests follow widespread attention to this weekend’s police aggression

The Cut’s Claire Lampen has collected the many videos showing instances of aggression by police that have gone viral on social media over the weekend. It’s likely these scenes are on protesters’s minds tonight as they once again face the prospect of new clashes with law enforcement.

View the rest here.

Protests in Santa Monica heat up

Demonstrators arrived on Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica around noon on Sunday, in a march that began without incident. Later in the afternoon, news footage showed people running out of stores that had been broken into. The city has issued a curfew that goes into effect at 4 p.m, while large tactical trucks have been sighted in the area. Police have used tear gas to dispel protesters in front of the Santa Monica pier.

Two police officers have been fired in Atlanta

Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that two police officers were fired and three were placed on desk duty pending review following a review of body-cam footage that the city’s police chief called “really shocking to watch.” Footage from the scene shows officers violently pulling two people from their car; the driver was reportedly tasered in the process of being detained.

Refueling the pandemic

There is absolutely no question that the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd will lead to spikes of coronavirus cases — the only question is how big they will be and where. Many protesters attending demonstrations across the country can be seen wearing face masks, but not all of them, and social distancing has often fallen by the wayside — particularly amid the chaos of clashes with police. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who has been one of the country’s leading voices on the pandemic, weighed in on the risk of protesters and police contracting the coronavirus on CBS’s Face the Nation this morning and his prognosis was grim:

“There’s going to be a lot of issues coming out of what’s happened in the last week, but one of them is going to be that chains of transmission will have become lit from these gatherings,” Gottlieb said on Face the Nation, adding that Minnesota, the epicenter of the protests, was already experiencing an uptick in coronavirus infections.

“This country isn’t through this epidemic,” Gottlieb said. “This is continuing to expand but at a much slower rate. But it’s still expanding, and we still have pockets of spread in communities that aren’t under good control.”

Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has already urged protesters to get tested for the coronavirus and noted during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State of the Union that even she has taken her eye off the pandemic in recent days:

Around 11:30 last night, I realized that I hadn’t looked at our coronavirus numbers in two days. And that’s frightening, because it’s a pandemic, and people of color are getting hit harder. I am extremely concerned when we are seeing mass gatherings. And we know what’s already happening in our community with this virus … we’re going to see the other side of this in a couple of weeks.

Public-health experts who spoke with the Daily Beast highlighted other concerns, including the danger of transmission during travel to and from the demonstrations, the importance of avoiding the elderly and other at-risk people after protesting, and the possibility that increased stress and lung damage from tear gas could make people more susceptible to a severe infection.

Two lawyers charged in attack on police in Brooklyn

Outside the 88th Precinct in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, two lawyers were arrested after a Molotov cocktail was allegedly thrown at a police cruiser. NYPD has identified the two as Urooj Rahman, a 31-year-old human-rights lawyer, and Colinford King Mattis, a 32-year-old lawyer working in mergers and acquisitions. Police claim Rahman lit a fuse in a beer bottle and threw it through the already-broken window of a police car before the two left the scene in a minivan. Inside the vehicle, police say they found more Molotov supplies.

Governor Cuomo calls for nationwide reform on handling police misconduct

In a press conference on Sunday, Governor Cuomo called for the federal government to reform the method by which police officers are investigated for misconduct, suggesting that independent agencies, not local prosecutors, should conduct inquiries into officer behavior and instances of police brutality. Cuomo also called “publicly available disciplinary records of officers who are accused of misconduct.” In New York, Section 50-A of the state civil-rights law precludes citizens from learning if an officer has had complaints against them or has a disciplinary record. He also called for a single, federal definition for what constitutes excessive force by a police officer.

The governor has also asked New York attorney general Letitia James to review NYPD conduct during the weekend’s protest.

Journalists are being targeted by police at numerous protests

Bellingcat has been tracking instances of law enforcement deliberately targeting journalists at the protests around the country, identifying at least 20 separate incidents and counting:

Although in some incidents it is possible the journalists were hit or affected accidentally, in the majority of the cases we have recorded the journalists are clearly identifiable as press, and it is clear that they are being deliberately targeted. This pattern of violence against journalists is replicated in several cities, but appears most intense in Minneapolis.

Photographer Linda Tirado was blinded in one eye after being hit with a police projectile in Minneapolis:

To say that Tirado is taking the experience in stride is an understatement. Amid the attention on her ordeal, she has tweeted that she “appreciate[s] the well wishes but a white lady losing an eye is not the injury we need to be focused on here” when “folks are protesting the extrajudicial killing of black and brown people.” Also:

The attacks on journalists were the primary focus of CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday.

Unrest nation

Meanwhile on the president’s Twitter account

But despite Trump’s insistence on blaming antifa for the unrest, it’s not actually clear what organized role — if any — antifa activists are playing. And as the Washington Post pointed out last year:

Although often referenced as a monolith, “antifa” is not one organization, but a loosely linked collection of groups, networks and individual people who support aggressive opposition to activists on the far right. And this is why [Republican efforts] to label antifa activists as terrorists raises concerns …

The lack of a central governing system for antifa creates the risk of wrongly applying the label to all counterprotesters of white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that opposes anti-Semitism. This kind of mislabeling, the ADL said, could cause police to violate the civil rights of peaceful activists.

National Guard now activated in at least 15 states

As of midday Sunday, some 5,000 National Guard troops have been activated nationwide across at least 15 states, with another 2,000 standing by in reserve, according to the Washington Post.

Watch this wrenching conversation between three generations of protesters in Houston

The Camden model

And in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday morning, Genesee County sheriff Chris Swanson spoke with protesters after they marched to the Flint Township police station. After asking the protesters how he could help them, they asked him to march with them, so he did:

Mayor de Blasio’s comment blaming protesters for getting struck by NYPD vehicles is being roundly criticized

In an interview with NY1 on Saturday night, Mayor de Blasio tried to defend NYPD officers following an earlier incident in Brooklyn in which a pair of police vehicles plowed through a group of protesters. De Blasio argued that it was an “impossible situation”:

If those protesters had just gotten out of the way and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle, we would not be talking about this.

In a situation like that, it’s a very, very tense situation. And imagine what it would be like, you’re just trying to do your job and then you see hundreds of people converging upon you. I’m not gonna blame officers who are trying to deal with an absolutely impossible situation. The folks who were converging on that police car did the wrong thing to begin with and they created an untenable situation.

I wish the officers had found a different approach. But let’s begin at the beginning. The protesters in that video did the wrong thing to surround them, surround that police car, period.”

De Blasio’s “if they had just gotten out of the way” comment quickly went viral on social media on Saturday night and drew condemnation from many, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

Meanwhile other elected city officials, like City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, expressed outrage over the plainly dangerous and irresponsible act:

Curfews were ordered in at least 39 cities or counties in 21 states

Local authorities in dozens of cities ordered curfews on Saturday in response to reported violence or declarations of unlawful assembly amid protests. Some of the curfews already extend through Monday morning. The cities include:

Saturday, May 30

Biden releases statement supporting the protests but calling for an end to the violence

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released a statement late Saturday insisting that “the act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest”:

“When you do that, they don’t come after you, they come after us”

Watch this black protester in Baltimore try to convince a white protester not to provoke violence:

A chilling, war-zone-like encounter with authorities on a residential street in Minneapolis

A resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis shared this alarming video showing city police and members of the National Guard moving in force down their street on Saturday night and firing paint canisters at them while they stood on the front porch of their home:

Watch protesters in Chicago protect police officers who were being beaten following a violent confrontation

The person who tweeted the video made a separate point:

In Salt Lake City, a man allegedly shot a bow and arrow at protesters

One of the most bizarre protest stories from Saturday:

Watch this Minneapolis protester’s message for anyone causing destruction during the demonstrations

In Los Angeles, a peaceful protest is followed by chaos, clashes, and a citywide curfew

Thousands of protesters gathered in Pan Pacific Park on Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, then began marching peacefully west toward Beverly Hills. But the Los Angeles Times reports that when the crowd was confronted by police, the situation quickly began to deteriorate. Within a few hours, police were firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, as many as a dozen police cruisers had been destroyed or damaged — and the violence continued. Looters broke into stores at the Grove shopping mall and set a police kiosk on fire. Mayor Eric Garcetti originally ordered an 8 p.m. curfew for the area of the protests, then expanded it to the entire city.

Many protesters blamed the police for ruining the peace:

Protests overnight Friday in Los Angeles led to some 533 arrests following clashes with police, the burning of two police vehicles, and reports of looting.

Coronavirus testing sites in the city have been temporarily closed amid the unrest.

Another news crew targeted in Minneapolis?

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and his camera crew were apparently targeted with projectiles by Minneapolis police while filming protests on Saturday night — just days after a CNN crew was detained.

NYPD vehicles drive into protesters in Brooklyn

Scary videos shared on social media showed two NYPD vehicles briefly trying to drive through a group of protesters in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Saturday. In the videos, a police vehicle is shown stopped in the middle of Flatbush Avenue near St. Marks — about a block away from the 78th Precinct — at which point a group of protesters starts to surround it. Some of the protesters carry a metal barricade up to the SUV and hold it against the front of the vehicle, while others begin throwing various objects at it.

Another NYPD SUV approaches and tries to move around the side of the other vehicle — and protesters then begin to surround it as well. The second vehicle surges forward, knocking the people back. Then the first vehicle does the same, sending the protesters holding the barricade flying back into the air and onto the ground:

It’s not yet clear if anyone was seriously injured.

A peaceful protest in downtown Newark on Saturday afternoon

Newark mayor Ras Baraka joined a large march through the city’s downtown on Saturday:

New York protester charged with attempted murder after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktail at NYPD van

A Catskills woman was charged with attempted murder on Saturday after she allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD van on Friday night in Brooklyn. Per WABC:

Samantha Shader, 27, was charged with four counts of attempted murder as well as attempted arson, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. She is now facing federal charges from U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the law-enforcement source said. Her sister, Darian Shader, 21, was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice. She is expected to be prosecuted by the Brooklyn District Attorney.

The pair remain in police custody. Also facing federal charges are two other people in a separate Molotov attack against police Friday night.

The protesters are expected to face federal charges as well.

Truck drives into protesters in Tallahassee, but there were no serious injuries

The driver of a pickup truck was taken into custody on Saturday after driving through a downtown Tallahassee intersection filled with people at a peaceful protest. ABC 27 reported that:

Video obtained [of the incident] shows a red truck being surrounded by protesters on all sides before one of the people in the crowd begins punching a passenger inside the truck. The truck then revs up and lurches forward, several protesters jumping out of the way to avoid being hit.

A witness told the Associated Press that “a couple people got out of the way, but some people didn’t, and it just drove straight through the crowd … No one was pulled under the wheels that I saw, but people were definitely hurt.”

Tallahassee mayor John E. Dailey later tweeted that no one was seriously injured and that the driver “was immediately taken into police custody.”

George Floyd’s brother says Trump was dismissive in call

In an MSNBC interview with the Reverend Al Sharpton on Saturday, Philonise Floyd said that when President Trump called him to offer his condolences, it clearly wasn’t because he was interested in listening:

He didn’t give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like: ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about’ …

I just told him I want justice. I said that I couldn’t believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight. I can’t stand for that. I can’t. And it hurt me.

Trump once again threatens violence against protesters

President Trump threatened protesters with violence again on Saturday morning in a series of tweets commenting on overnight protests near the White House. Trump first said he had watched the events and celebrated how the Secret Service responded, then wrote that “nobody came close to breaching the fence,” but “if they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.”

On Thursday night, Trump had vowed that the military would be used to help authorities in Minnesota “assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” His tweets were later hidden by Twitter.

Friday, May 29

A state of emergency following violent protests in Atlanta

Protests in Atlanta turned violent as demonstrators massed around Centennial Olympic Park and Lenox Square on Friday night and Saturday morning — prompting Georgia governor Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency for the county and order the activation of as many as 500 National Guard service members to help police quell the unrest.

Early Friday night outside the CNN Center, protesters attacked police cars and set one of them on fire, while others targeted the entrance to CNN headquarters with projectiles and spray paint and there was vandalism and looting, including at the College Football Hall of Fame.

The unrest continued through Saturday morning, leading to multiple reported car fires, more looting around the Lenox Square mall in Buckhead, and some reports of shootings, according to 11Alive news.

The “chaos” prompted an impassioned speech from Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who fought back tears as she tried to explain to destructive demonstrators in her city why they weren’t honoring George Floyd or anyone else, why they were harming their own majority black community, and why they needed to “go home”:

Multiple arrests were reported, and police repeatedly used tear gas in their attempts to disperse the crowds. Early Friday night, Atlanta police chief Erika Shields tried to engage with protesters one-on-one:

Twin Cities curfew ignored in another night of violence

Minnesota governor Tim Walz issued an overnight curfew order for Minneapolis and St. Paul this weekend — from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, but many protesters ignored the order and hit the streets anyway on Friday night. Some of the protests remained peaceful, but others did not. Multiple fires were set throughout the city’s south side, according to the Associated Press, and some were left to burn as firefighters were unable to reach them amid the chaos. Minneapolis police also said that some of their officers had been fired upon during the night — but that no one was injured.

Walz later said he did not have enough police and National Guard troops to enforce the curfew, commenting that “we cannot arrest people when we are trying to hold ground,” and adding he would mobilize another 1,000 Guard members — for a total of 1,700.

Thousands protest in New York; clashes, arrests, and reports of police brutality followed

Protesters hit the streets in New York City for the second consecutive night on Friday, with large demonstrations taking place in lower Manhattan and in Brooklyn. Thousands massed at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where most protesters demonstrated peacefully, but some threw projectiles at police, who responded with pepper spray. Another protest happened outside the 88th Precinct in Clinton Hill, where some of the hundreds of demonstrators damaged police vehicles. A few blocks away in Fort Greene, an NYPD van was set ablaze. Several officers were injured during the unrest, but none of the injuries appear to have been serious.

Protesters also stopped traffic in lower Manhattan during an earlier demonstration in Foley Square.

Two New York elected officials at the protest in Brooklyn were among the people arrested, Assemblywoman Diana Richardson and State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie, who tweeted that he was also pepper sprayed:

Several alarming scenes shared on social media were of brutal conduct by police:

City Council member Stephen Levin later responded to that widely shared video, calling the officer’s actions “inexcusable”:

There was a large police presence around the Barclays Center in advance of the protest:

An overnight curfew ordered in Portland following unrest

Portland, Oregon, mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency and ordered an overnight curfew after protests in the city led to violence. Some protesters broke into the Multnomah County Justice Center and set fires, and the windows of multiple downtown businesses were smashed.

The violence followed a peaceful three-hour vigil for Floyd at Peninsula Park. Protesters then marched downtown starting around 9 p.m. local time.

White House placed on brief lockdown amid protests, which continued overnight

Hundreds of people protesting the death of George Floyd marched down 14th Street to the White House on Friday night, and a handful of protesters clashed with police in Lafayette Square Park, prompting a brief lockdown at the White House, which is across the street. At least one person was arrested. The main crowd later moved on down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol, but protests continued near the White House overnight Friday.

A largely peaceful protest, then chaos in Houston

A Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Houston, Texas, drew “hundreds if not thousands” of people on Friday afternoon, the Houston Chronicle reported. After the main peaceful rally outside City Hall ended around 4 p.m., a smaller group of protesters disrupted traffic on an Interstate 45 ramp and U.S. 59 — which led to some brief clashes with police. More violence followed overnight, leading to hundreds of arrests.

George Floyd was originally from Houston’s Third Ward.

8 minutes and 46 seconds

That’s how long Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin pinned George Floyd to the ground with his knee, including for nearly three minutes after one of the other arresting officers had been unable to find Floyd’s pulse, according to the criminal complaint filed against Chauvin on Friday.

Prosecutors said that Floyd was compliant with officers after at first resisting being handcuffed and sat on the ground while being questioned. He then “stiffened up, fell to the ground, and told the officers he was claustrophobic” when officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng tried to walk him to a squad car:

While standing outside the car, Mr. Floyd began saying and repeating that he could not breathe. [Chauvin] went to the passenger side and tried to get Mr. Floyd into the car from that side and Lane and Kueng assisted.

[Chauvin] pulled Mr. Floyd out of the passenger side of the squad car at 8:19:38 p.m. and Mr. Floyd went to the ground face down and still handcuffed. Kueng held Mr. Floyd’s back and Lane held his legs. [Chauvin] placed his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyd’s head and neck. Mr. Floyd said, “ I can’t breathe” multiple times and repeatedly said, “Mama” and “please,” as well. [Chauvin] and the other two officers stayed in their positions.

The officers said, “You are talking fine” to Mr. Floyd as he continued to move back and forth. Lane asked, “should we roll him on his side?” and [Chauvin] said, “No, staying put where we got him.” Officer Lane said, “I am worried about excited delirium or whatever.” [Chauvin] said, “That’s why we have him on his stomach.” None of the three officers moved from their positions. 

[Body-worn camera] video shows Mr. Floyd continue to move and breathe. At 8:24:24, Mr. Floyd stopped moving. At 8:25:31 the video appears to show Mr. Floyd ceasing to breathe or speak. Lane said, “want to roll him on his side.” Kueng checked Mr. Floyd’s right wrist for a pulse and said, “I couldn’t find one.” None of the officers moved from their positions.

At 8:27:24, the defendant removed his knee from Mr. Floyd’s neck. An ambulance and emergency medical personnel arrived, the officers placed Mr. Floyd on a gurney, and the ambulance left the scene. Mr. Floyd was pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center.

The complaint concludes:

Two minutes and 53 seconds of [the time Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck to the ground] was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous.

Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin charged with murder

Chauvin, who was fired on Monday along with three other officers involved in detaining Floyd, was taken into custody on Friday afternoon. A short time later, Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, said that Chauvin had been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. The investigation into the other three officers is ongoing.

“We have now been able to put together the evidence that we need. Even as late as yesterday afternoon, we did not have all that we needed,” Freeman said, without giving specifics on the evidence. “This is by far the fastest that we’ve ever charged a police officer,” Freeman added.

As NBC News notes, the Minneapolis Police Department initially said Floyd “physically resisted” arrest and died after “suffering medical distress.”

A CNN crew covering the protests was arrested

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his camera crew were taken into custody Friday morning while covering the aftermath of the protests. A statement from the Minnesota State Police suggests that officers did not believe Jimenez was who he said he was. The media members were released within a couple hours and Minnesota governor Tim Walz apologized. For the latest updates on this story, go here.

Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct headquarters was set on fire

The Third Precinct has become a center of unrest, as it housed Officer Derek Chauvin. At dusk on Thursday, as police fired projectiles at demonstrators, a building near the precinct was engulfed in flames. Around 10 p.m. CT, the Minneapolis Police Department evacuated its staff, at which point demonstrators broke into the building. After fireworks were set off directly into the building, it was lit on fire. A liquor store near the police building was also set ablaze, while protesters reportedly set off fireworks inside an Arby’s in the area. Around midnight, gunshots were also reported in the area.

Around 11:30 p.m. CT, city officials urged demonstrators to clear the immediate area, in case the fire ignited the precinct’s gas lines, or police explosives in the building:

At a 1:30 a.m. Friday press conference, Mayor Jacob Frey say he made the decision to evacuate the precinct after “it became clear that there were imminent threats to both officers and the public.” He said, “The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or the public. Brick and mortar is not as important as life.”

Demonstrators shut down the highway

Earlier on Thursday, protesters took to I-35W close to downtown Minneapolis, shutting down traffic on the interstate:

The National Guard mobilized 500 troops

Following authorization by Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the Minnesota National Guard announced Thursday night that it would send in 500 troops to the Twin Cities to quell the unrest:

The Guard troops fanned out across the city and into neighboring St. Paul. Some were dispatched to the Third Precinct to protect firefighters attempting to stop the fire there from spreading.

The Minnesota State Capitol was evacuated

On Thursday afternoon, lawmakers were directed around 1:30 p.m. to leave the Capitol in St. Paul after demonstrators had forcibly entered nearby stores. On Thursday night in St. Paul, protesters set fire to an auto-parts store a few miles west of the capitol building.

By night’s end, police said 170 businesses in St. Paul had been damaged or looted. Despite the help of 75 state troopers and the National Guardsmen, police had trouble stopping the looters, the Star Tribune reports.

The worst-struck parts of the Twin Cities had the feel of a cat-and-mouse game. When a police vehicle pulled up to a strip mall in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood, where a large crowd had smashed windows of a Verizon store, a Noodles & Co. and a Vitamin Shoppe, the crowd immediately scattered, only to re-emerge elsewhere.

Police formed a barricade in front of a Target there. But no officers were at the T.J. Maxx store a block away, so looters smashed the door down and fled with shoes and clothing piled on shopping carts.

Demonstrations spread beyond the Twin Cities

Throughout the U.S., protests erupted on Thursday, including demonstrations in Albuquerque, Phoenix, Columbus, and Memphis. In Manhattan, at least 70 people were arrested at a protest in Union Square:

In Denver, the Colorado State Capitol was placed on lockdown after shots were fired at a demonstration nearby. A video taken at the protest also showed an SUV attempting to run a demonstrator over.

Protests over Breonna Taylor’s killing took over downtown Louisville

In Louisville, protesters gathered in response to the police killing of Breonna Taylor in March. The protests Thursday night were sparked by the release of a 911 call from Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. As the call makes clear, Walker did not know that the people who broke into their home and shot Taylor were police.

After several hours without confrontation throughout the streets of downtown Louisville, police and demonstrators began to clash around 11 p.m. By the end of the night, seven people had been shot. The Louisville Metro Police Department said none of its officers fired a weapon. One of the shooting victims is in critical condition as of the morning.

Trump appears to threaten to shoot American citizens

In a pair of tweets in which he threatened to send in the National Guard — which was already on the ground — President Trump appeared to suggest that police or military forces in Minneapolis should begin using lethal force to end the protests:

Twitter added a warning on the tweet, saying that it violates its rule against glorifying violence. Asked about Trump’s tweets, Frey said, “Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your fingers at somebody else at a time of crisis. Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis.”

This post has been updated to reflect new information.