Stood outside Minneapolis’s under siege Third Police Precinct among the tear gas and rubber bullets, I was ordered to the front of the rioting mob.
As I was shoved forward, a demonstrator protesting the death of black George Floyd at the hands of white police officers told me: “Scream ‘No justice’ and we going to follow you.
“They’re not going to shoot your white ass. They are not going to send any gas over here. You’re here. You’re too clean.
“I want to hear you say something.”
Another added: “They’re not going to get you, you’ve got a nice tie on.
“They’re not going to get you.”
My three hours on the front line of demonstrations in Minneapolis was a shocking insight into the anger and frustration felt not only in this city but across America.
Thousands had descended on the precinct to voice their fury at violence despite the fear of further brutality.
For many in the crowd, there was a belief that the only protection from the police’s tear gas and weapons was a white face.
When I explained I was a journalist and not a demonstrator, the mood turned.
“You’re hiding something,” a woman said.
“They (the police) send their own out to act as agitators. To stir us up. You’re one of them.”
Within seconds I was surrounded by a crowd of 15 or so clear in the belief I was not there to report on their struggles.
Already Wednesday night had turned deadly in Minneapolis as tensions began building between law enforcement and African-American communities across America.
At several points, I was told to leave with one twenty-something man saying “you too will join George Floyd”.
Then a middle-aged black man stepped in saying using violence made them no better than the police. I’m unsure how it would have been resolved other than the punch to chest one threw.
And yet for all their hostility to me, I still felt their anger, deep anger, was entirely understandable.
As they chanted “What’s his name? George Floyd” and “Hands up. Don’t shoot”, in front of them stood 50 or so, overwhelmingly white, militarised police armed with batons and guns.
Two days earlier, four of their colleagues were involved in the death of Mr Floyd.
The father-of-two died on Monday evening after officer Derek Chauvin was seen placing his knee on the 46-year-old’s neck for eight minutes until he passed out.
Mr Floyd had earlier been dragged from his car outside a Cup Foods convenience store suspected of using a fake $20 bill.
Within less than 15 minutes, he was on the ground begging for his life.
“My neck hurts. Everything hurts,” he is heard on the video telling the cop, who turned a deaf ear to the increasingly desperate calls for clemency.
“Water or something, please. I can’t breathe. The knee on my neck.”
Bystanders pleaded with the officer to remove his weight, before and after Mr Floyd fell silent.
Minneapolis Fire Department, which acts as paramedics in the city, revealed he did not have a pulse when loaded into an ambulance and that an off-duty firefighter witnessed him go unresponsive.
The death re-ignited racial unrest similar to that which flared in July 2014 after black man Eric Garner was choked to death by white police in New York.
On the video, Mr Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe” reminiscent of Garner’s dying declaration during his arrest on Staten Island.
Ever since video of his death went viral, Minneapolis has seen tensions simmer none more so than at the Third Police Precinct on Minnehaha Avenue. Not one of the station’s windows has not been smashed.
As cops dressed in riot gear protected the perimeter on the ground, others took to the precinct’s rooftop firing down on the crowd with tear gas, bang grenades and rubber bullets.
They were supported by mounted police.
Opposing them were hundreds of protestors armed with rocks, fireworks, Molotov cocktails, golf clubs and baseball bats. One had a chainsaw.
But whereas on Tuesday night little damage was caused, on Wednesday, the powder keg of anger finally erupted.
As some protestors were intent on causing unrest and damage, they were dwarfed by those who simply wanted to be heard.
One elderly onlooker, Jeremiah Allen, called the looters “opportunists” saying they had no interest in achieving justice for Mr Floyd.
The African American retired printer, 71, who said he has lived in the area all his life, told the Mirror: “It was a dark day when Mr Floyd was killed. One of the darkest we have seen in this city.
“There are many protesting like me, who are out here because we need change.
“There are dozens of others who are opportunist using Mr Floyd’s an excuse to line their pockets.
“The world is looking at Minneapolis now and what will they see, a city grieving or a city giving way to lawlessness.”
Previously I have covered riots across the US following the death of a black man at the hands of white officers.
They included the Ferguson protests in August 2014 following the shooting to death of teenager Michael Brown.
But none have been so immersed in anger as here in south Minneapolis today.
As hundreds on Wednesday night refused to cower as police continued to fire upon them, I watched as an Autozone store - much like Halfords - become engulfed in flames.
It was not clear whether the fire was started deliberately or by a firework launched over the building directed at police on the other side.
The precinct is where Chauvin and colleagues Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng where based, who took part in Mr Floyd’s arrest were all based.
All four have since been fired as the FBI investigate Mr Floyd’s death.
Many other business were torched as well as new apartment block currently being constructed.
Nearby hundreds looted at a Target retail store, Hi-Lake Liquors and Cubs Food supermarket.
Vehicles filled the thousand capacity car park as word spread the shop’s doors had been smashed open, and police would not attend.
It led to the stores being stripped bare as people, some of whom took their young children inside, were seen running out with trolley loads of goods.
One looter was reportedly shot dead by the owner of a pawn shop after they were suspected of trying to steal from the business. A person is in custody.
Nearby a group of four armed white vigilantes calling themselves “heavily armed rednecks” had gathered outside a tobacco store to protect the businesses from being targeted.
A woman in a wheelchair was punched in the head and sprayed with a fire extinguisher after trying to block protesters - allegedly with a knife in her hand.
Elsewhere looters tried pulling cash machines from their fixings.
Every available surface close to the precinct appeared to have profanity-laced graffiti mostly “FTP” - F*** the police.
Separate protests were held at homes of the local county Attorney Mike Freeman and Chauvin as well as where Mr Floyd was arrested.
As the chaos and destruction continued demands for accountability continued to ring out from Floyd’s family, politicians, celebrities and other high-profile figures, Mayor Jacob Frey called on prosecutors to arrest the officer who used his knee to hold Mr Floyd by the neck.
Already he has said if the man had been white, he would be alive today.
Mayor Jacob Frey requested the National Guard be called in to try and gain control of the city.
A Black Lives Matter demonstration was held Los Angeles, once itself the backdrop to riots after the Rodney King beating by police, in support of those seeking justice for Mr Floyd.
About 1,000 protesters descended on the city on Wednesday afternoon and quickly escalated into violence.
Aerial footage showed several protesters surrounding a California Highway Patrol car and smashing the back windows.
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