Officials have filed charges today against four men accused of shooting into a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis a week ago.
Protests have been ongoing outside the precinct building since police shot Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man, just a few hundred yards down the road on 15 November. He died in hospital a day later.
Witnesses have told the Guardian that the four attackers were being aggressive with protesters, and were using racial slurs. They were escorted from the protest and one of them then opened fire, wounding five people.
The campaigners also said that police said to them “isn’t this what you wanted” after the shooting, and used mace on people tending to the wounded.
The assailant who allegedly fired the shots, Allen Scarsella, was charged with five counts of second-degree assault and one count of second-degree riot with a dangerous weapon. The other three – Joseph Backman, Nathan Gustavsson and Daniel Macey – were each charged with second-degree riot with a dangerous weapon.
In a press conference on Monday afternoon, Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman said that the investigation was still ongoing as to whether further charges, including possible felony hate-crime charges, might be brought against the four men.
However, he said that hate-crime charges were not being brought yet, because the current charges in fact carried longer potential sentences than equivalent hate-crime charges.
Asked whether the attacks were racially motivated, Freeman said: “Oh yes. The defendants’ own statements, their video, show that these are sick people.” He said that he believed the “principal players” were now in custody but that an investigation continues into whether there was another person involved.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say that,” he added. “But the language they use, the way they talk about fellow Americans – citizens, people – is just not acceptable. Period.”
The criminal complaints against Scarsella says that investigators viewed a message chain on the 4chan website that showed the participants discussing going to the protest to “stir things up” and “cause commotion”.
Participants were told to “feel free to carry [firearms]”, according to the complaint.
Scarsella is being held on a $500,000 bail, and the other three on $250,000 bail.
