MINNEAPOLIS— A couple of hundred people gathered outside the Brooklyn Center police headquarters Thursday night for a fifth night in a row Thursday. As of 7:15 p.m., the protest was noisy but peaceful.
After several days of multiple curfews being declared around the metro area, only one was planned Thursday night, in Champlin. That's where former police officer Kimberly Potter, charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, lives with her family.
Many protesters hung vehicle air fresheners on the chain-link fence surrounding the station in reference to Wright's mother's statement that her son had one dangling from his car's rearview mirror when he was stopped.
Among them was Patience Morris, 18, of Brooklyn Center. "I come here every day at 6 p.m. with my sister," she said. Her sister, Diamond Sheriff, 31, also of Brooklyn Center, said their cousin Alfred Toe was killed by an off-duty police officer in Trenton, New Jersey, in 2016. (A prosecutor later ruled the officer's use of deadly force justified.)
Activist Toussaint Morrison said on Twitter that umbrellas were being handed out to protesters "so they don't get any rain on them." On past nights, protesters have used umbrellas to shelter themselves from tear gas or pepper spray.
While the law enforcement presence remained visible Thursday, there were no physical confrontations early in the evening.
No tear gas was fired on Wednesday night, which was a generally less chaotic night than Sunday, Monday and Tuesday's protests. There have been a smattering of arrests each night.
