MINNEAPOLIS _ Twin Cities residents, many of them under curfew, waited on edge Friday night, boarding up buildings and closing down shops as fears of weekend chaos and unrest in the streets of the Twin Cities metro area grew, following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died under the restraint of Minneapolis police.
As an 8 p.m. curfew fell over Minneapolis, St. Paul and several suburban communities, announcements were made to demonstrators at various sites that they were to go home. At Minneapolis' Third Precinct police headquarters, which was torched early Friday, State Patrol officers fired tear gas at protesters just before the curfew took place.
Earlier Friday evening, buildings sat charred from arson the night before, hundreds of peaceful marchers stopped traffic on the iconic Hennepin Avenue bridge near downtown Minneapolis, then marched onto Interstate 35W and back into downtown. But others were poised to keep going into the night, despite the government orders to stay off the streets.
Some leaders had hoped for a reprieve from several nights of unruly demonstrations after authorities announced around midday that Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin had been arrested and was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Video taken Monday night showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than 8{ minutes, while Floyd fell unresponsive and was later pronounced dead.
Near the burned Third Precinct police building, many in a crowd of hundreds took a knee with their fists in the air. Leaders in the crowd said they wouldn't abide by the curfew if all four officers at the scene of Floyd's arrest weren't arrested and charged.
"They can't arrest us all," they said. But when the tear gas was launched, many fled the area.
Cousins Thomas Mante and DeWayne Counce, who are black, stood on the corner of Lake Street and S. 22nd Avenue on Friday evening as several demonstrators stood in front of a line of National Guardsmen and vehicles parked across Lake Street.
"It's a humanity thing," Counce said.
"People are fed up," Mante said.
The two said they're glad Chauvin was arrested and charged, but said the third-degree murder count was too low. "They're basically saying it wasn't intentional," Counce said.
They want to see the other three former officers charged with murder, too.
As he urged peaceful protest earlier in the day, Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged Minnesota's deep-rooted inequity and called for new measures to assure change this time, after little changed so many times before.
"Minneapolis and St. Paul are on fire, the fires still smolder in our streets. The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish � unheard. Much liked we failed to hear George Floyd as he pleaded for his life as the world watched by people sworn to protect him, this community, the state," Walz said. "I wont patronize you as a white man without living those lived experiences of how very difficult that is. But I'm asking you to help us, help us use a humane way to get the streets to a place where we can restore justice, so that those that are expressing rage and anger and demanding justice are heard. Not those who throw firebombs into businesses."
Most of the cool daylight hours were peaceful Friday.
At an afternoon rally in and around government buildings in downtown Minneapolis, Actor Jamie Foxx and former NBA player Stephen Jackson _ a friend of Floyd's _ spoke to gathered crowds.
For those old enough to remember the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police officers, Floyd's death under the knee of a Minneapolis cop opened old wounds.
Ingrid Lagos, 49, who joined the peaceful gathering downtown, had just graduated college in Los Angeles when King was beaten and she watched as her city burned. Many businesses destroyed in the riots never recovered.
"Here we are again," said Lagos, a Salvadorian-American who moved to Minneapolis last Christmas. "Another city. I don't know that it's going to be any different until structural change happens."
The Twin Cities seemed so alluring at first, with its biking culture, lakes and outdoor activities. But Lagos said after a struggle to find affordable housing, she quickly realized how deep the area's racial inequities run.
To her, protesters are confronting more than the death of another black man at the hands of police. "They're very angry about the conditions that seem to be invisible," she said. "The disparity of wealth, education and resources is what's fueling these riots."
State Patrol officers and National Guard members guarded various buildings around the metro area Friday after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he lacked enough personnel to maintain order and protect property from further destruction.
State troopers arrested and briefly detained a CNN reporter and crew on live television near dawn Friday _ an action that Walz later apologized for, saying he took full responsibility.
Later in the day, authorities identified the only person whose death has so far been connected to the unrest: Calvin L. Horton Jr., 43, of Minneapolis, was fatally shot outside a pawnshop Wednesday night on East Lake Street near S. Bloomington Avenue, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.
A 59-year-old man from Galesville, Wis., who owns Cadillac Jewelry, was arrested that night and held without bail ahead of possible murder charges. Police have yet to disclose a motive for the shooting, but police sources said the owner suspected the man was involved in looting.
Citizens and business owners spent much of the day sweeping up broken glass and other debris from break-ins and fires set the night before. As of Friday, more than 175 buildings reported property damage chaos from the previous nights, according to a Star Tribune tally of the destruction. Damage popped up as far as Apple Valley, where the Dakota County Western Service Center sustained broken windows, fire and water damage, the sheriff's office announced.
After Minneapolis and St. Paul issued curfews starting Friday night, other cities including Edina, Bloomington, Richfield and Roseville followed suit, as well as Dakota and Anoka counties.
Throughout the metro area, many businesses closed and building managers boarded up windows in anticipation of further destruction. Some hung signs signifying that they were local, family businesses owned by people of color, in hopes of being spared. In downtown Minneapolis, many buildings, including the IDS Center, were fortified with plywood. Windows at the Hennepin County library had been broken the night before.
